The Rookie and the Machine
by Those3Morons
Summary: Many Remnant bunkers were scattered throughout the Heleus cluster in Andromeda, some were for storage and maintenance, others were for more important purposes, usually atmospheric processing. However, one vault in particular housed something quite special, something that was not of the galaxy. Two humans, both far from their home's. How will they react to this strange, new galaxy?
1. Perfect Symbiosis and Impossible DNA

**Hello everyone, new story is up now as I promised before. This story takes place in ME Andromeda, and this is a small multi crossover between Mass Effect, Gears of War, and lastly Crysis. The last one there will feature the one and only oc of this story, so no worries about too many of them appearing in this story. Not only that, but this story is going to be rates T for teen, until we get to the later chapters.**

**The first chapter here is basically a filler, just to introduce you all to who is going to be featured and what they are capable of. As such, this chapter is going to be relatively small compared to the one's in A Heart of Onyx, but as time and the story progresses, so too will the word count. Also, since this story is a side story, it will be updated once or twice a month, compared to the weekly or biweekly updates on the other story.**

**Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this story as you all have the other one.**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

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**Chapter One: Perfect Symbiosis and Impossible DNA**

"This is Head Researcher of the Jardaan, Ryulum Kevstis, log twenty-six, date is currently the 32nd of Genesis, of the 86th cycle; the subject for this log is the… hybrid that we found lost is the outer reaches of one of our colonies stellar systems. It is unlike anything we've ever received and seen before.

This… hybrid is the culmination of both organic and synthetic elements, bonded together at the microscopic level: I believe that this is in all actuality a combat exoskeleton designed to keep its occupant alive through the harshest environments imaginable. Allow me to clarify.

It was found in the void between planets in temperatures barely above absolute zero, it was exposed to immense amounts of radiation yet showed zero signs of being affected, it appears to have experienced temperatures that exceed well over 6000 Celsius, and the fact that it draws energy from nearly everything in its immediate area into itself to fuel it was an eye opener for us.

That was only the surface observations.

When we had scanned the internal layer beneath the suit, that's when we discovered that it is still inhabited. We had believed that the occupant had perished, being in the void and in near absolute zero temperatures would support this theory and the conclusions that my colleagues and I found.

We were wrong.

At first, we believed that the suit was affecting our scans: it was as if it was designed to repel any and all attempts to do this course of action, and it was successful. That's when one of our drones, an observer to be precise, that floats around here was hacked into, not long after we stopped. The source of this intrusion was the suit itself, or rather what lies within it.

It was an AI.

It calls itself… _Second_, I believe, strange name for an AI, but that could be the translator acting up on either of our ends. Anyways, Second had bypassed the security nodes inside the observer and then used its frequency module to communicate with us, albeit we could barely understand it.

After a literal standard galactic week of working nonstop to create a translation matrix, we had successfully installed and uploaded it onto a data crystal, which we then gave to the alien AI.

After downloading the contents, it spoke to us in clear, concise, and practically perfect Jadenian; let me find the recording and I'll play it for the log." The voice says, the sounds of objects being moved around on a surface while the speaker mutters curses under his breath, before the speaker makes a sound of triumph at having found what he was looking for.

"Here it is, and let me be the first to say that this experience changed how we'll deal with whoever is inside the suit."

With that said, the sound of a machine activating and static is heard, before a low, robotic, cold and calculating voice is heard.

"_Situational update: digital information download and upload completed, translation software is at 100% completion and efficiency. Scanning unidentified lifeforms… scans complete. Unidentified lifeforms labeled as _Jardaan_. Threat analysis… complete, threat level… medium. I will protect my soldier until he awakens."_

The recording ends there, with Ryulum speaking excitedly about what just happened.

"It was amazing, simply mindboggling at the revelation after we had heard this AI speak for the first time! I'm getting ahead of myself here, my apologies. Anyways, the machine had spoken with us after we proved ourselves to be peaceful to it. When we had reached this milestone, that is when we began asking questions about each other.

I had asked the obvious questions first; questions like: who are you, what species is your operator called, where are you from, and what brought you here were all what we desired at this point. The more… extravagant questions came later, after it finished its questions.

It told us what it was called, the operator was a species who called themselves _humans_, they hail from the neighboring galaxy, the _Milky Way _as they call it, and that something called an _Einstein-Rosen Bridge_ brought them here after they destroyed a… _Xeno-Ceph, _or the term that made all of us stop in our tracks, _Charybdis_ litho-ship that was in the process of taking their world.

After we had learned this information, many of us were fearful about what had occurred in our neighboring galaxy: the Charybdis were a race of organic beings that operated in a hivemind to advance themselves ahead of others. We had a run in with them almost a millennium ago; they had invaded our worlds, killed off the population and harvested ever bit of resource that it had to offer. We sent everything we had at them and achieved victory, but not without a cost. It had crippled our entire defense network at the end of the war, billions of our people were dead, and many worlds were lost to the enemy. Thankfully to Meridian, we recovered those worlds and restarted anew: but we still remember all who sacrificed their lives to stop them.

We had believed that they were back and ready to attack again, but the AI had told us that his operator and a fellow… _nanosuit_ operator had successfully removed them from their homeworld and gave everything they had to get to where they are now. These… humans have done the unimaginable in defeating a race that sought nothing but their destruction and damnation. But that still brings up a rather… disturbing point.

The suit is made from their technology; in essence, it is a Charybdis exoskeleton.

My colleagues and I have been at each other's throats for an entire week about this: I keep explaining that the suit has no connection to the alien threat that we had faced once before, but they keep rebutting me with the fact that it's still their technology and that they can track it down.

Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother trying to argue with them.

Besides that, it has been a month since we have had this human in our care, a month of learning all that we can from the AI, and month of studying the organic and synthetic parts of the specimen. He, I assume it is a he based from what we've been told, was bonded with the suit at the age of twenty-one, due to a traumatic accident that almost guaranteed the loss of his life, and that the bonding, or the symbiosis as the AI called it, was the only way to ensure that he would stay alive.

But this procedure came with a price that some, I myself included, would think is too high of a price: once you have the suit bonded with you and symbiosis takes place, you can never remove it. Removing the two entities from each other would kill the operator in almost every case, due to total system shock and various other ailments that would guarantee death.

Once you're in it, you can never get out of it.

However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are many staggering benefits and overall improvements that outweigh these detriments.

Faster reaction times, ageless and virtually immortal, extremely high durability and regeneration, protection from all forms of weapons including but not limited to ballistics, energy, mass accelerator, explosives, thermal, cryogenic, and even electrical attacks. Most of these options, the suit will redirect the energy and absorb it into itself; further powering it and replenishing any lost energy. The other functions allow it to survive in a perfect vacuum, heavily irradiated environments, total darkness, extremes heat and cold, and many more. Add in the fact that it grants the user extreme strength, stamina, tactical and situational awareness from the AI giving the user real-time data to work with, a built-in defibrillator that is quite redundant due what he is capable of right now, to be honest, the ability to see on all spectrums, invisibility that's nearly impossible to detect, and an armor function that seemingly makes the user invulnerable for a brief time is utterly… amazing.

Whoever these… _Jacob Hargreave_ and _Karl Rasch_ are, they knew how to make this suit nearly indestructible. We've ran tests that has shown that it could survive a thermonuclear warhead being dropped on top of it and it surviving completely intact.

Astounding.

And the AI is capable of decrypting any form of security and algorithm that it meets with extreme proficiency; having been made from Charybdis technology and using the operator's actual brain as a storage device would help ensure that it would succeed, and from what it has informed me, he and someone named _Alcatraz_ cured a viral disease that the Charybdis had infected on their city in only _days._

More onto the side effects that the suit brings its user: it eliminates the need for sleep, nutritional intake from both food and drinks, the user doesn't need to use bodily functions that any other organic would, and this last one is just a theory, it may even eliminate the need to _breathe_.

All in all, the suit and the operator were designed to be the ultimate soldier; one who never thirsts, one who never hungers, one who never tires, and one who never has the need to rely on what their bodies use to breathe. It does all of that for the soldier and then some.

He is the apex predator, the ultimate soldier, and most of all; the perfect killing machine.

I fear for not only my safety, but other's as well whenever this human awakens; the AI is the one who knows everything that has happened in the last two weeks, not the human. If he were to wake up and discover that he's in an unknown location surrounded by unknown aliens… the results would be catastrophic, to say the least.

I only fear what would happen to result in us awakening him or the other test subject that we have found, but I fear that we may have to do it sooner rather than later.

We're dying. All of the Jardaan are dying.

As the Head Researcher of Meridian, I and my colleagues are close to finishing the project that will be our greatest undertaking since constructing all of the vaults and this colossal space station: the Angara.

Such a beautiful, emotional, and brilliant species they are, or should I say, will be. After we are gone, they will live in this cluster, thrive in it and call it their home. We are leaving them our technology; it is the least we can do for a species that will know so little of the universe around them." He stops for a moment, breathing deeply to get his emotions under control, before continuing with his report.

"My apologies, I… get emotional when I speak about my children. Moving on to the subject that this report is about; the perfect specimen of true symbiosis.

With our technology and the AI's abilities, we are able to see the memories of this individual and the other specimen we have in our custody. What I seen was… heartbreaking to say the least.

This human, _Outcast_ as I learned from his memories, was orphaned at a young age and grew up in relative solitude, only to get away from the life he had lived by joining the military. His scores, skills, and sheer determination throughout his military career had gathered the interest of the special forces unit labeled as_ Raptor Team_, a unit that consists of others wearing this nanosuit. Karl Rasch met with him personally and extended the invitation to him to become a _post-human warrior_, as he had called it.

He accepted.

About three months pass by and he gets involved in a horrendous accident involving numerous vehicles that nearly costed him his life, then the company responsible for making the nanosuit had taken him to their main facility to be bonded with it in order to save his life. Or rather, to end his normal, human life and trade it in for an augmented one instead.

Beyond that, I have seen the events that had occurred at this remote island called _Lingshan_, and that was when they had encountered the Charybdis for the first time. They lost two of their own within hours of fighting another nation's enemy, when these _monstrosities_ had shown up. The events that happened afterwards aren't important really: they stopped their human enemy and the Charybdis before the situation could escalate with the use of a portable nuclear launcher. Only for a couple of years later for the aliens to come back to one of their main cities, _New York City_ I believe.

That was when the viral disease had swept through the entire city, infecting everyone that it came into contact with.

_Prophet_, the commanding officer of Raptor Team, had… killed himself to save the life of another soldier. Stating that he was infected and that he and Outcast would have to finish the mission. Alcatraz and Outcast had set out to find a scientist who would help them get to where they needed to go, and when they had gathered their samples to create a cure, they had released it into the spore carrier/creator that the aliens had in their city, successfully killing off every Charybdis and curing everyone else who wasn't dead from the infection.

That was when it became clear of another ability that the nanosuit had: assimilation.

This feature allows the suit to literally rewrite the entire genetic makeup of a living being: erasing thoughts, memories, mannerisms, and even the DNA and replace it with the previous occupant's, effectively killing off the user and replacing them with the previous one. Making the main user virtually immortal.

If they die and someone else wore the suit, the suit would use their body and kill off the occupant and replace them.

Astounding and an amazing feat of scientific technology, but an amoral and horrifying concept and a bastardization of life.

Alcatraz had once again become Prophet. And, he was none the wiser, from what it seems.

This _Cell_ foundation had captured the two of them and put them into these containment cells and held them there for over two decades, using the suits natural makeup to keep it locked within as the cell was put into storage wherever it was.

That was in the human year 2023, when they had finally escaped it was 2046.

An old friend, someone named _Psycho_, an individual who was skinned from his suit but somehow survived, had released them and explained what was going on and that they needed their help to finish off Cell for good.

Having been out of combat and disoriented due to the time difference, both Prophet and Outcast had agreed to help them. Days later after fighting Cell forces and more Charybdis, it was discovered that System X, the power source for an orbital weapon, was actually a living alpha Charybdis. The damned fools had been using it as a source of unlimited power for years now.

When they had destroyed the satellite station that kept it imprisoned, it had escaped and used the technology inside of Rasch to attack both Prophet and Outcast. One human, a female named _Claire_, had interrupted the attack that surely would have been the end of both men; but in return she was mortally wounded and had later perished from her wounds that the indoctrinated Rasch had inflicted upon her.

With that done and over with, the three remaining soldiers had found the location of the last remaining Charybdis area with ease; having a portal open up in the sky with a bright light coming from it was definitely a large hint that gave away the leader's position. Having attacked the key targets from the surrounding areas, they had _overcharged_ their suits once again, a feat that grants complete and total invincibility with increased strength, speed, stamina, and other factors and used it to destroy the mind-carriers needed to draw out the leader.

And they were not happy about what they were trying to tell them through those carriers.

Together, they had both laid waste to every single hostile that stood before them and their target; with extreme prejudice.

That was when it showed up and started to attack them personally.

But I sense that it had somehow underestimated the two soldiers and their capabilities: they both used their weapons and skill to kill any remaining hostile that was sent their way and used a bow loaded with a high-explosive shot, and fired it into the open maw of the alien. This bow is completely unnatural and shouldn't even be here, but it was folded and collapsed onto his back. We have it in a separate area and are currently studying it and what we are learning about is phenomenal, to say the least.

It was a scene that almost made me cry in happiness: not from the death of the creature, but from the fact that the two of them successfully saved their world from being rendered extinct by the hands of these monsters.

It wasn't over yet.

They were both sucked into the portal and ended up in space right were the Charybdis litho-ship was coming from. However, it would seem that luck or a deity of some sort was on their side: The Archangel weapons platform.

Utilizing a nearby vehicle as leverage, the two of them used all of their might and pushed themselves to the platform and bypassed all of its systems. They then proceeded to utilize it and fire it at maximum charge at the exposed core of the ship, utterly annihilating it.

This scene did make me cry in happiness.

Sadly though, the two soldiers were knocked away from the blast, Prophet headed back to their homeworld and Outcast was pulled into the gravitational well and beyond the portal's entry point fue to an implosion from the ship's reactor core.

And that is how he came here to our galaxy, albeit that time dilation and the very fabric of space, reality, and time must've been bent around the young man to send him here.

It may be an alternate universe, considering the fact that the Charybdis that the Jardaan knows would glow blue and could have easily conquered their planet. But that is the case with alternate universes: some things remain similar, but they could be drastically changed. Such is the case for this instance, the alien threat could've been weakened from before and that gave humanity enough time and a chance to fight back. That and add in the fact that no one can use their weapons, even after my people have tried to unlock the biological blocks that are infused with their technology. But they did, a primitive race that has barely even explored their stellar system had done what we could not.

My predecessor must be laughing at me from beyond.

And that brings us up to this point in time; and as such, this will be a decent place to end my report.

This is Head Researcher, Ryulum Kevstis, signing off."

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"This is Head Researcher of the Jardaan, Ryulum Kevstis, log number twenty-nine, date is the 12th of Scourge, of the 86th cycle; the subject of this log is for the other specimen that we have in custody: this… human with impossible traits and genetics.

Allow me to clarify: unlike the other human, this human has a natural regeneration that far surpasses anything that we have here in our galaxy, he is very tall and stands just over two meters in height, approximately three to four inches taller than the other individual that we have, has impressive strength, though significantly less than other human, and his DNA contains a perfect blend of both dextro and levo proteins which benefits the host to the point that he can eat practically anything he desires to. However, he had an unknown parasite living within his body; one that would've been the death of him eventually. Upon discovery, we had removed this parasite from his body and studied all that we could about it before incinerating it.

We didn't want to know what would've happened if it were to infect other species.

Anyways, we had found this human washed up upon one of many shores that span the planet of Ustaavin and he was in very critical condition: it appears that he had been attacked by some form of animal and had been practically mauled to the point that his armor had been melted away in the chest, arms, and legs areas and that he had been practically bleeding out on the sand. When he was discovered, we had placed him inside of a stasis field to halt any ongoing damage that was currently happening, until we could figure out how to heal him.

Using our technology, we were able to see his memories to get a better understanding of just who we're dealing with here: his name was… _Benjamin Carmine_ and he and his humanity lived on a different planet from this _Earth_, a planet named _Sera_. This planet has a higher gravity threshold, almost twice as much as the other human in our custody, his humanity was less advanced but somewhat more advanced at the same time; usage of weapons called the _Hammer of Dawn_ which was capable of destroying anything against a race of subterranean creatures was a dead giveaway that he and the other human are from separate universes as well.

Why does all the strange and bizarre occurrences happen to me?

Anyways, moving on from that, this human had been fighting in a planet wide war against this _locust_ enemy for over a decade, in their planet's time measurement that is; it comes to be around over sixteen years for the other human's measurements. He had been fresh from their basic training to help fight the enemy of their people to secure a better tomorrow, he joined because of his three older brothers, two of whom are dead, an _Anthony_ and_ Devin _I believe are their names_, _all while hoping to live up to their family's legacy. He believed that his brothers had died valiantly and that he would never forget them by becoming a soldier as well.

From then on, he was assigned a role onto this _Delta Squad_, the same group his brother Anthony had been on, and their commander, _Sergeant Fenix_, was hard on the boy, but it is in my belief that he cared for the young man in his own way.

Similar to my brother and I when I was still in the military.

They had fought together to stop a giant worm, a _riftworm_, from swallowing the ground beneath numerous cities, but at a price: he fell out of their evacuation vehicle and right into its maw and was subsequently swallowed whole.

The next twenty minutes were… nightmarish, to say the least.

He had been attacked by creatures within the beast, creatures that tore into his armor and flesh and proceeded to rip him apart. I wept in sorrow at such a kind, gentle, and hopeful soul being subjected to this horror." The voice trails off, seemingly getting emotional from having to speak about what he had seen occur to the young man.

After getting his emotions in check and going through numerous breathing exercises to help calm himself down, he continues where he had left off.

"My apologies, yet again; it brings me sorrow to see such a thing happen to one who doesn't deserve it. After this had occurred, Sergeant Fenix had found the young man and held him as he gave his last words to him, telling him to inform his parents and his brother that he tried to fight and live up to their legacy and that he loved them all. He had passed away in his arms not two seconds later, after giving the man his identification necklace.

How he had appeared on Ustaavin remains a mystery, even to me, but I see this as a justice to bring this young man back to health and ensure that he lives a very good, long lasting life. It is the least I could do for him and for his friends and family.

I will use our technology to ensure that he lives to be well over a hundred and fifty years, maybe two hundred, after I fully heal him of his injuries, boost his immune system to make him immune to any disease and with his weapons following him here, I'll make sure to find a way to ensure that they never run out of ammunition and for his armor to be upgraded so that it's on par with our most elite military forces. And maybe I'll upgrade the other human's armor and bow, add a few jump jets in the feet and back so that he may traverse the environment of any planet easier than ever and make the weapon out of sturdier materials and other properties that further enhances its abilities. And whoever they come into contact with, be it a species from this galaxy or the next, I have installed a translation software within their minds so that it could automatically translate any unknown language that they may encounter. It'll take a bit for it would register and process the words that someone will say to them, but after ten or so minutes, they should be well enough on their own.

Their weapons are another story as well: the bow I have mentioned has a maximum draw weight of over six-thousand-pounds, and is capable of stopping many opponents with a single shot, add in the fact that it also has different types of arrows that it uses; an electric one, a super thermite explosive one, an airburst one, and finally the standard one that is generally loaded. Not much I can do there, besides increasing the durability and ammo reserve that it has. For the… _lancer_ assault rifle, I can do infinitely more with it: I can make it an energy weapon that never runs out of ammunition, I can make it even more durable than it currently is, I can make the energy bolts fire at different temperatures from extreme heat to extreme cold, and overall just make it better. I do this, so that if they choose to still be soldiers, they will have the equipment necessary to use against any hostile forces. Since Outcast doesn't have a weapon suitable for extended combat, I can relinquish a couple from our armory, possibly a sniper rifle and an assault rifle.

It is the least I can do for two beings who have been through so much pain and suffering. I will ensure that they will receive a better life here in our galaxy; on this, I can assure you that by my name and title, these two humans will have a better tomorrow here in our galaxy, one that they have named _Andromeda_.

A better name than what my people has for it; we call it the _Kintasei'ahna_, it means _'a home such as this welcomes any species who comes here.'_

Andromeda… such a beautiful name for our home.

Anyways, not much else to be said about Benjamin here, not as much as Outcast at least. The AI has tampered with the memories so that his name would be protected from our intrusions. Understandable, but frustrating nonetheless.

I only hope that when the time comes to release them onto any planet of their choice, they will come to see that there's no reason to be soldiers anymore and to live their lives the way that it was meant to be: free and however they wish it to be.

It is the least I could do to repay them for all of their sacrifices that they had made for their people, their home, and most of all… themselves.

This is Head Researcher, Ryulum Kevstis, signing off."

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"This is Head Re- it doesn't matter anymore: we are under attack and it is total war over here at Meridian; our enemies have found us, and they are now taking offensive measures to ensure our destruction. The date is the 36th of Scourge, of the 86th cycle; Meridian has been launched and is now exiting the stellar system as I speak, our enemy is hunting for it while the rest of their forces remain to secure this station.

I will not allow that to happen." Came the grim reply, the man activating something in the background shortly before the sounds of their machines activating throughout the entirety of the station as klaxons blare in alongside it.

"I have activated the entirety of our defense systems all across the cluster, if our enemy so desires our technology and Meridian, they'll have to fight for it. As for the Angara… we have sent them off to live on a planet of their choosing, one of them even named it _Havaarl_. I had loaded the last of their kind onto the life ships and sent them there to live their lives in peace.

As for Outcast and Benjamin… I'm giving them their weapons and armor, the second one being for young Benjamin, and sending them off to one of our vaults on a different planet, where they will remain in stasis until the time comes when they are awakened by one who has the knowledge and skills necessary to utilize our systems. They each will have enough energy to last a couple thousand years, though with the nanosuit and its energy absorption properties, Outcast's stasis field will only have around 1300 years of energy. When they awaken, they will have an understanding of our technology to the point that they can use it whenever they please, afterwards, they will fight the oppressors and send them back to whatever hole they came from, mark my words.

This is the last day of the Scourge, with our systems running on defensive actions and asset denial mode, the hardened mass of dark energy will overtake sections of this cluster; ensuring the safety of Meridian from hostile minds and hands.

This is Head Researcher, Ryulum Kevstis, signing off and to whoever finds this recording and data… please forgive us and find these two soldiers and spare them of this fight."

After that was said and done, an explosion rocks throughout the facility, sending debris and metal everywhere as Kevstis hurries to where the two interests of the scientific community have been kept, before activating a console and sending them to wherever it was that he had unknowingly chosen.

He'd rather die than give up his home, his research, and these two humans to the enemy.

With them loaded up onto stasis pods and onto a ship, they are both sent away to be hidden in a vault far away from their current location.

He had saved them, when he couldn't have saved himself.

With the ship carrying the two humans sent off into space to be placed into underground vaults, this will be the last time that anyone hears or sees of them for a very, very long time.

And when they'll awaken, it won't be in a place that is familiar to them, or even a universe that is familiar to them at that: _everything_ will be alien to them… even each other.

* * *

Centuries have passed since that fateful day, centuries of being in suspended animation inside of a stasis field designed to protect them, and something happened to the vault they were in: it was reactivated.

And soon afterwards, they will be discovered as well by someone very important to the galaxy at large: A Pathfinder.

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**And that wraps up this beginning chapter. I hope that you all enjoy this as much as you all have the other story.**

**Now onto the stats about the Predator Bow: the bow was made by Niles Archery, Crytech Armories. A normal human can lift around 1000 lbs, or roughly 454kg, max. When under the effects of adrenanline during the fight or flight response, that can reach up to 3000 lbs, or roughly 1364 kg. The nanosuit doubles the strength of a human. The highest draw weight of the bow is said to take the maximum strength that the suit is capable of so that the draw string can be pulled taut. With that said, it could be extrapolated that the highest draw weight is around 6000 lbs, or roughly 2727 kg.**

**However, this is debatable when in the game you can kick and toss heavy machinery and concrete blocks over couple dozen or so meters, which implies that the suit is even stronger than this explanation.**

**Anyways, with that out of the way, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all next time!**


	2. A Path Found to Hidden Secrets

**Hello everyone, I'm back now. Thank you all for reading and reviewing this story; I'm glad that you all enjoyed it. Next update should be somewhere between 3 weeks and 4 weeks, since it is a side story.**

**Review time:**

**Justin: no u.**

**Ashsupport: thank you very much! Here's another chapter!**

**Craztony: same as before, thank you very much!**

**Advocate: since answering those questions here would've provided spoilers for the later chapters and the end, I sent you the details in a pm to avoid anyone figuring out what happens and potentially ruining the story overall.**

**Blaze: thay was planned from the start. Believe me, I spent hours fretting over if he should've seen the countermeasure go off or if he should've been killed like he was in the game. So I went with him dying as he did in game because of ine reason: trauma. Getting your insides melted, torn to shreds, and partially eaten by parasites inside of the rift worm. And since he's only around 17 or 18, that scars a kid for life. But not to worry, he will be healed of that soon.**

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**Chapter Two: A Path Found to Hidden Secrets**

"It's like a gravity well!" Came a feminine voice, the excitement and wonder clearly being heard by the other three individuals that are accompanying the owner of the one who spoke.

"But where is it taking us?" Came the question for the first person's comment.

"Embrace the unknown, Ryder!"

After falling down the aforementioned _gravity well_, the group comes to a stop at the bottom, softly landing upon the cold, metallic floor of the ancient structure. Ryder, the only person we know the name of observes the surrounding area, commenting that it appears to be form of vault.

The other voice responds to his comment, telling that whatever he calls it, the controls of the atmospheric processor should be down in the vault with them.

Taking a look around the room that they were now in, the group comes upon two locked doors: one located at the back of the upper floor and the other located at the far end of the room. Walking up to the upper floor, Ryder take a look at the console and inspects it before activating it.

Hearing the sound of machinery operating, Ryder inform the others that he doesn't think it powered anything of importance and if it did, then it might be running on emergency power.

That was when a robotic voice spoke through the team's intercoms.

"I detected fluid running beneath the console through the floor and it may be what powers the console; your omni-tool should be able to scan the rest." It informs them, giving everyone a purpose as to what they should do next.

Activating the scanner, Ryder easily picks up the conduit for the console, informing SAM that it leads out of the room and further into the structure.

"Hey Ryder, what about this door here?" Came the question from another person, his voice having a slight accent to it as he jabs a thumb it its direction.

"I'm not seeing any power running to the door there… maybe it'll open once we activate this vault? Anyways, SAM can you pick up anything behind the door?"

"Something is blocking any scans that I am using, but what I can tell you is that there are two powerful sources of energy behind the door. I am sorry Pathfinder; I cannot get any more readings from the room beyond surface level observations." It informs them, somewhat upsetting the group as they continue to follow the conduit trail.

Walking into the next room, they discover the controls to the facility but are disheartened when they see that it is powered down. However, this didn't dissuade them from continuing further on into the vault, hoping to achieve their mission to make Eos they're new home.

Looking down at the ground, the feminine voice from earlier sees a small, cylindrical device sitting upright on the floor; seemingly left there on purpose by whoever else was inside the remnant vault.

"Huh, that's interesting…" She mutters, reaching down for the object in fascination and curiosity.

Stepping up beside the woman, Ryder asks her if she knows what it is, only to receive a string of hypotheses from the woman as she can only make guesses at what device and its nature are.

Carrying on with their endeavor, the group splits up; three headed one way, and one headed the other.

"Comms check, it's… well you know who."

"We read you, Peebee. Stay in touch." Ryder tells the now named Peebee, before he shuts his mic off when the women gives him an acknowledgement.

Moving on further ahead, the group comes into contact with yet another room, this one bigger than the last three.

Gazing around the room, Ryder expresses his thoughts out loud, stating that whoever had built this had done so through solid rock.

"Look at the ceiling; those star… things are what must be bracing it up." Came the observation from a feminine, flanging voice; the owner of which was obviously a different species than the other two.

"What is that liquid on the floor?"

"Unable to classify." Came the automated response from their comms, to which Ryder said that the only way they have is to go through it.

Reaching a foot and lightly touching surface, Ryder is given an electrical shock, seemingly burning him through his armor and shields as if they weren't there.

"Ah shit! Watch that stuff, it burns!"

"Why would you even touch it? I'm pretty sure Liam here wouldn't have done that."

"Well Vetra, someone had to find out the hard way, right?"

The now named Vetra shook her head, disappointment clearly evident on her face as her mandibles click together.

"Well, I know what I'm not doing." Came the response from Liam, taking a few steps back from the edge of the ramp that they were currently standing on.

Pointing at pillars that were coming from beneath the mysterious liquid, Ryder tell them that they can use those platforms as a means to getting across the lake of death and continuing on with their mission.

Only after crossing the aqueduct of the liquid and fighting a few more remnant bots, did they see just how massive the room actually was; it was big enough to house the Hyperion ark and still have extra space.

In other words: absolutely massive.

"Look how far it goes…" Vetra said, staring out into the vastness of the room.

"All this, for an atmospheric processor? What is this place?"

The group was stunned at the sheer size; many pyramid-like structures lining the floor and ceiling, their purpose unknown to the three. But they can stare and gawk at it some other time; they needed to activate the central power to get the vault up and running so that Eos will have a better chance of survival.

* * *

After fighting yet another wave of hostile mechs, the group makes their way along the path that was made around the outer wall, only to see Peebee running out of a door on the opposite side of the chasm that separated them; seemingly trying to get away from wherever or whatever it was in the room behind them.

"Peebee!" Ryder calls out to her, gaining the attention of the asari as soon as she heard her name mentioned.

"Ryder! That relic box I found? Not a symbol of authority; the remnant still shoots at me!" She responds, the reason as to why she's running now clear to the three of them.

"I'll try it with one of those data terminals I saw."

"Is that a good idea?"

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained!"

At least she was the enthusiastic type; that has to count for something, right?

After speaking some more about the technology inside the vault, the group finds their way to what appears to be another empty room with yet more machines inside of it, readying their weapons and other gear for a fight with the remnant once again.

"Look how high it is; might be another gravity well." Ryder mumbles, observing the corridor that led straight up through the room, and if he were to apply that reason in reverse, it had to lead down into yet another part of the vault.

This place just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Upon being noticed by one of the machines, Ryder orders the squad to take them out before they could do anything else in the room.

Accepting the command, both Vetra and Liam takes positions behind barriers that sprouted from the ground; using them as cover to return fire at the six robots that are currently shooting at them.

During the fighting, Vetra asks him if he's sure that the well would open up after they took care of the problem at hand; her skepticism clear as day to the man as he destroys an observer.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure! Focus on the remnant!"

Clearly, this man was the ideal Pathfinder that everyone else aspired to be.

After clearing the remnant forces from the room, Ryder scans the environment; telling the others and his AI that the conduit splits into two separate paths that leads to the opposite sides of the room. After this, SAM tells him to activate the consoles that those paths lead to so that they gravity well could be accessible to them.

After being warned about more activity below, Ryder and his team uses the gravity well to descend further into the vault.

Liam was quick with an observation as they were headed to the lower level.

"How can something be so clean, when it's… how old?"

SAM informed him that the age was currently unknown and that radiation counts indicates that the structure has been offline for over several hundred years.

"Around the time the Scourge appeared? That can't be a coincidence. Maybe the Scourge is why all this tech was abandoned?" Ryder asks, his observational skills at work as he tries to make sense of the alien structure, to which SAM concurs with his question and theories.

Upon reaching the console to unlock the door at the far end of the room, Ryder curses as he sees that the conduit that powered the console was cracked and that it was leaking all over it.

"If you try to interface with it, you'll burn your hands off." Vetra warned, remembering what the man had done to the strange fluid about twenty minutes ago.

"And no fluid means no power. Damn it… maybe that was why those devices from above were turned off. We're not turning back now; there has to be some way for us to fix the leak." He says, stepping back from the console as he scans the room for anything that could help them along their merry way.

That was when Peebee showed up and got their attention, asking what was wrong with everything and why nothing would work.

Ryder then explained to her that the conduit that they have been following was breached and that they needed to fix it before they could go any further into the vault.

That was when the woman had an idea and shared it with them.

"Hey wait! The observers were using weird laser frequencies to fix a broken wall back there; maybe I can send the frequencies to your omni-tool. Who know, maybe they can patch up the conduit?" She explains, bringing up her omni-tool to send the data to Ryder so that he may try and see if her plan works out for them.

Bringing up his omni-tool, Ryder tells her that her message was received and that he'll give it a shot.

After running the frequency through the machine, the conduit was repaired enough to allow it to continue functioning, though he warned them that it was only a patch job and that it needed to repaired thoroughly at a later date.

Now they were getting somewhere; with access now available to more of the vault, the squad makes their way through the now open door and towards their destination.

"Would you look at that…"

"Nowhere to go, but down."

The room that stood behind the door revealed a seemingly bottomless pit filled with the fluid with several pillars, platforms, consoles, and even large plant-like flora.

"Watch your step: that's a long way down." He warns them, using his jump jets to help him traverse the platforms that rose from the pit so that he and his team could get across without incident.

Upon steeping up close to the plan and scanning, the group was clueless as to how a plant would thrive deep underground without a noticeable food and water source for it to use.

Upon landing on a platform, more remnant machines appear; hostile intent clear to the three people as they get into cover.

"Company!" Ryder yells out, grabbing his rifle and returning fire at the machines as Liam and Vetra follows suit shortly after he does.

"How many of these assholes are there?" Liam asks, throwing a grenade at a couple of observers who happened to be near each other.

"Judging from the size of this place… at least ten." Came the sarcastic reply from Ryder, after he got done throwing a biotic attack at an assembler.

"Great math." Came the sarcastic remark from Vetra.

"I try."

After the fighting was over, they had went back to using the consoles to bring up more pillars for them to use so that they could finally get to the control room, obviously tired from having to run around, jump and climb walls, and dive from cover to cover to avoid getting shot more than they had to.

All in all, it was easy to see that they were no longer enjoying the vault and that its luster and awe factor had ran out.

After finally getting to the other side of the chasm, Ryder stops as asks if anyone else feels the platform resonating with something before telling everyone that they must be close. Upon opening the door, they are greeted with a small tunnel with a swirling mass of energy lighting up the entire room that lies across from them; hinting to the team that it must be what they're after.

Upon walking into the room itself, Ryder stops as he looks at the energy beam.

"There's no doubt about it: this _is_ the heart of the vault." He says, turning to look around the room for any console that has to be activated.

Vetra was next to comment about beam.

"I've never seen anything like it." She says, wonder lacing her tone as she is finally able to look away from the beam and follows Ryder.

Liam just whistles at it and moves on.

Upon finding a large console, SAM informs them that all conduits merge into it, leading Ryder to figure out that it must be what they're looking for.

However, upon activating it, the beam turns red before disappearing, leading Ryder to look around and pick up a similar looking data core that Peebee told him to be on the lookout for.

Asking SAM for his thoughts, he is told that it is an unknow and that it may be related to the lockdown; though an in-depth study may reveal what its true purpose is.

"The system lockdown is disabled. The vault and the atmospheric processor should return to full operation."

Upon hearing his comms activate, Peebee asks if he fixed the lockdown, stating that the whole place is lighting up and that the power readings were off the charts.

"Really, really _off the chart_…" She trails off, hearing the sounds of something activating deep within the facility that catches not her attention, but the other's as well.

"But if it's back online we should be good… to…" He stops his sentence as a large, black cloud is making its way to them; disintegrating and vaporizing any organic material that is within the vault.

In other words: they needed to haul their asses back to the surface, or else the Black Death 2.0 will erase them from history.

"Ryder…" Vetra begins, backing away slowly from the approaching cloud, as everyone follows her lead.

"Should we…"

"GO!" He screams, turning around and running as if his life depended on it.

Which it actually does, in this moment.

Upon turning into a side corridor, Ryder orders Peebee to get back to the elevator as the cloud slowly catches up to them.

"I saw _it_! What is that thing?!" She responds, concern and slight fear lacing her tone, as she sprints to safety.

"DON'T RISK IT! JUST GO!"

Having to run from a cloud of doom was bad enough, but having dodge exploding vents while running away from a cloud of doom was worse.

"Another gravity well!" Ryder points out, activating the express route to get the hell away from the cloud.

"We don't know where it goes!" Vetra screams, genuine fear and worry prominent in her flanging voice as Liam isn't far behind her.

"I looked back! WHY DID I LOOK BACK?!"

After taking the gravity well up, Peebee contacted them through their comms and told them that it was sweeping the entire vault and killing anything in its way.

"Yeah, I know!"

Upon reaching the ground floor, the three of them sprints to the exit of the facility, but not before grabbing the tech inside of the container that was behind a barrier, and finally makes it to the door.

Only to realize that it was sealed.

"Shit, it's sealed! Try to get something under it!" Vetra tells them desperation now in full force as the cloud encroaches on them.

Upon seeing that there was no chance of escape, Ryder takes one last look at the console and gains an idea: interface with it and hope that it would stop the cloud from killing them all.

Activating his omni-tool, SAM notifies him that the console is attempting to reconnect with the surface for unknown reasons.

Seeing that the cloud was literally ten feet in front of his face, Ryder curses at the device and shields his face in reflex to prepare for the worst.

Only for the cloud to get pulled back at the last possible second, seemingly returning to wherever it came from, leaving the four people's hearts pounding in their ears from having their systems flooded with adrenaline during the life or death situation that they had just narrowly escaped from.

"Vault restart is now complete." SAM informed him, bringing him out of his position as he looks at the fading cloud.

Peebee was the first to respond, saying that it was a rush, as she's still breathing heavily from the nonstop sprinting that she had done in the past two minutes.

"Nothing like outrunning death." Came the breathless reply from Ryder, the man doubled over to regain his breathing and to calm his heart.

"Or reactivating a huge, mysterious vault. Nice going."

That was when SAM informed them that the atmosphere processor was online and that he was recovering the last console activity. What he showed them was astounding to everyone.

"Is that… is that the Heleus Cluster?" Peebee asks more to herself than anyone else, transfixed by the holographic map that had appeared before their eyes.

"Yeah… and there we are; that's Eos." He points out, looking straight at the planet in question as data floats around them.

"Something happened… because we restarted the system?" Vetra asks, not really understanding what was unfolding before her eyes.

Ryder then confirmed what she had, and pointing out what appeared to be additional vaults on other worlds that were mostly dormant as well.

That was when Peebee asked what the purpose was for these vaults, to which Ryder replies with, "This tech can create observers from nowhere or ravage a whole planet, and that's just we've _seen_. The bots, those plants back there, the atmosphere processors…"

"I once did supply runs for a Council team that was seeding some ice planet's atmosphere, trying to melt the ice caps." Vetra mentioned, following along with what Ryder was saying.

Liam then tells them that the first processor that they encountered on Habitat 7 was broken; that it was destroying that world instead of repairing it.

Peebee, upon observing the map noticed that one of the vaults appeared to be online and that it has to be checked out as soon as possible.

Upon confirming that they would head to the mysterious world next, they all turned and started to head out of the vault only to remember something from when they first entered it:

The locked door.

Stepping up to it, they seen that it was unlocked decided to see what was the source of two powerful energy sources; after SAM advised them to investigate it.

And when the door opened, all they could see was a giant machine standing in front of the door on the opposite side, almost as if it was getting ready to leave the room that it was locked within.

That was when Vetra opened her mouth.

"What the-"

Then it _screamed_.

"AHH! SPIKEY ALIEN!"

And that's when it punched her straight in face, knocking her to the ground and it pushing all of them out of its way before running away from them.

"What the fuck…" Is all that Liam could mutter at what just happened before their eyes; just the sheer absurdity catching everyone off guard.

"After it! It knows secrets!" Peebee orders, pointing a finger at the still screaming machine.

Only stop when they hear a robotic voice from behind them, catching their attention and seeing that nothing was there; that was, until _something_ appeared out of thin air in front of them with a weapon leveled at their heads.

It didn't look like any remnant machine that they've fought before. In fact, it looked… _human_.

"I don't know what the hell that thing just said, but you're not going to do a damn thing." It told them, tightening its grip on its rifle as it had it trained on them.

* * *

He could feel something… but he was dreaming: you can't feel anything in dreams, can you?

Can you?

Outcast was suddenly awakened from his sleep, quickly looking around as he woke up on the floor of some metal building.

"_Get up soldier! Now's no time to rest, so get your ass up and get to it!_" His AI, SECOND, orders, giving the man a shock through the suit to get him up and about.

Groaning a bit but standing nevertheless, he brings up his tactical visor and begins to scan the environment around him: from machines to data caches, the person currently asleep on the floor next to him, and back to whatever those pedestals were.

His AI had informed them that it was Jardaan technology and that they are currently located in the Andromeda galaxy after they were pulled into the gravitational field of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.

"_Stress levels elevating: calm down soldier, I will explain everything._"

"Calm down? _Calm down?_ SECOND, we are currently over two million lightyears from Earth and you're telling me to calm down?! Where am I? Who the fuck is that guy on the ground and why am I reading about upgrades done to the nanosuit?" He questions it, looking around the room to try and find a way out, but to no avail.

"_You and the other human, Carmine, Benjamin were brought to this planet six hundred twelve years ago, by a race referring to themselves as the Jardaan; I will explain everything as we find a way out of the room, but right now you and the other person are the only ones here. Listing subject: Carmine, Benjamin as an ally; further situational reports are being made. Standby as all recorded information during your stasis will be uploaded into your mind; it's going to hurt._" It warned him, and hurt it did: it felt as if his ribcage was breaking all over again while someone was beating him over the head with a sledgehammer.

Not a pleasant experience, to say the least.

When the upload was finished, the suit administered painkillers into his system, before correcting any discomfort that was caused from having so much information learned is so little time.

Looking over at his companion, he knelt down and started to shake the boy; telling him to wake up and get off the ground.

"Wuh?" Came the bleary response from the downed person, clearly not understanding what was currently happening to him.

"Where… where am I?"

"Sorry kid, but I can't answer that question for you."

Hearing the sound of someone else in the room made the kid turn around abruptly, only to scream as he sees a completely alien robot standing above him with its arms crossed.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE COG, I SWEAR!"

Outcast merely sighed at what just happened; it was going to take a bit of convincing to get the boy to calm down.

Taking his mask off, he revealed to him that he was a human like he was and that he has no interest in learning about whatever the COG was.

"Listen kid, we're stuck in this room together alright? It's been like this for over six hundred years; everyone you have ever know and loved is long gone. So how about you stop screaming, calm down, and get a hold of yourself soldier. Let's start with introductions: I'm Outcast, first lieutenant in the United States Army, special forces unit Raptor Team. And you are?"

Perking up at hearing the man's rank, Ben stands perfectly upright and brings his arm up in a salute to the officer standing before him.

"SIR, Private Benjamin Carmine of the Coalition of Ordered Governments sir!"

'_Oh lord, he's one of those privates.'_ Came the grim thought to Outcast, shaking his head at the kid who was still at attention.

"Carry on soldier, better yet; don't salute me anymore, as far as I'm concerned, we're equals right now so you drop the sir stuff too." He tells him, crossing his arms as his AI was currently analyzing everything that it could for future use.

"Uh yes sir, I mean of course. I'm sorry, it's just- I don't know what's going on right now and I've never seen anything like what you're wearing. Where… where are we and what am I wearing?" He asks him, looking around the room and noticing that he isn't wearing his armor anymore, but now wearing something that looks way more advanced and durable than what he originally had.

Sighing at the question, Outcast tells him that they're in the Andromeda galaxy and on some alien planet, deep underground inside of a vault where they've been in stasis for centuries.

When Ben had asked him about how he knew this, he was informed that Outcast had an AI within his suit that was analyzing everything about the room and about him, which made the kid slightly uncomfortable. He was then informed that they would have to stick together if they ever wanted to get out of here alive.

"Get your helmet on and SECOND, my AI, will contact you through it and link our comms together so that we can stay in touch, if we were ever separated. Grab your weapon off the wall behind me while I grab… whatever the hell these things are and get ready to leave in five, okay?" He tells him, walking over to a wall shelf and grabbing his Predator bow and the two other weapons that SECOND had labeled as an assault rifle and a sniper rifle, while Ben had grabbed his lancer and began to inspect it.

"What's wrong with this thing? It looks… different."

This was when the AI had made his presence known to the boy, startling him as he almost drops his rifle on the ground.

"_Scans indicate that your rifle has been modified heavily with a nano-laminate metal that is found inside the walls of the facility, changed to fire plasma shots consistent with Jardaan technology, and that its ammo reserves will never be exhausted. It will overheat and will need time to cool down before it can fire again, if you utilize it too much in a small-time frame."_ It explained, making him look down at his rifle in amazement and wonder as he begins bouncing excitedly as he begins making plans with it.

"That's so cool! Unlimited ammo rocks!"

"Yeah, yeah come one kid, let's get out of this room; SECOND shows that the door is now unlocked for us." He tells him, waiting at the door for him to finish what he's doing.

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

With that said, they both stop as they hear the door beginning to open.

Immediately after this, Outcast activates his cloak and turns invisible just the door opens and reveals four people standing on the other side.

Or should we say, two people and two aliens.

Ben reacted in a very understandable way, especially when the one with spikes on the side of its head spoke and said something in its language.

He screamed and punched it hard enough to knock it down and ran through the crowd, pushing every one of the unknowns out of his way so that he can gain some distance which will allow him to assess the group.

Yeah, that's totally what happened, not the whole screaming thing and running away; he would never do such a thing.

The blue one said something in her language only to stop when his friend had reappeared with a weapon drawn on them. Deciding that now was a good time to come back to see if Outcast was in trouble, he turns around and heads right up the ramp only to see Outcast grab the dark colored human by the neck and lift him off the ground with one arm, his armor somehow seeming to _harden _and _glow_ as the other three opens fire on him.

He just shrugged off their attacks like he's been doing this for years now.

Throwing the captive human at the blue alien, human thing and sending them both down to the ground, he gets his weapon knocked from his hands by some sort of bolt that came from the orange glowing wrist computer that the lead human was wearing.

And that's when the hand-to-hand combat started.

Cloaking in front of the weird alien thing, he had maneuvered behind it and had grabbed the weapon from its grasp, before tossing it aside and dodging an attack from the thing as is had tried stabbing him with some weird orange knives that appeared out of thin air. After this, the man had kicked its legs out from beneath it with one leg and then proceeded to kick it into the door behind it with his other leg, definitely causing some damage in the process as Ben had heard it cry out in pain.

Batting the rifle away from the human after he had turned his attention to him, Outcast had dodged the attack from that wrist thing that formed a blade out of thin air, before grabbing the fist that was thrown in hopes of getting a hit on the man. With an edge in the fight, Outcast had began pulling the man around, using his arm as leverage to get him off balance, before hitting the man squarely in the helmet with his fist, shattering the visor completely before maneuvering himself around the man and pinning his arm behind his back and placing a knife to the man's neck.

And that brought the fight to a stand-still.

Groaning and hissing in pain, the human tells the alien, Vetra if Ben had heard him correctly, to hold on a minute and to not shoot, eyeing the rifle that she currently had trained on the two of them.

The alien had spoken some more, but this time he could hear _something_ coming from its mouth, something about a rider or a writer.

"RYDER! Let him go and I promise that I'll put a bullet between your… eye? Fuck it, let him go and I'll shoot you in the face, deal?" Said the dark colored man, his accent one that Ben has never heard of before.

"Liam, for the love of god shut up! You okay, Peebee? That hit you took looked like it hurt." Ryder asked, trying to pull away from the strong, vice-like grip that his captor currently had him in, only to have the knife now being pressed into his neck instead of near it.

That's when the blue woman said something funny, or at least that's what Ben thought; this Ryder guy did laugh at whatever she had said.

Was it even a she? It and the other alien sounded feminine… as much as he could tell, at least.

"Yeah, I'll take your word for it. Now onto more… urgent matters: if you let go, I promise you that I and my squad will drop our weapons and I'll talk to you and your friend over there, okay? I'll start first." He said, slowly moving his hand down to his pistol before tossing it to the ground.

"See? We can talk and get through this peacefully."

"Fine, but if you or your team even so much as reaches for their rifles; I'll kill all of you with zero remorse." With that said, Ryder motions for his team to drop their weapons, giving them zero room to work with as they glared at the man holding him captive.

Ben decided to come up beside them and awkwardly scratch the back of his head, knowing that he's responsible for what just happened between them and his friend.

He needed to apologize.

"Hey, um ma'am is it? Right, ma'am, I'm sorry for calling you a spikey alien and punching you… I- I was scared and I just woke up inside that weird machine not ten minutes ago. I'm sorry and that- I uh, I'm not good at these sorts of things, um, yeah… do you forgive me?" He asks her, looking down in guilt as Ryder had said her name, which it was Vetra, to be nice to the people who currently has him hostage.

Sighing in reluctance, the alien nodded at him, which put a smile on his face and brought him to a good mood.

"Thank you so much! I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

Letting go of the man, Outcast keeps his knife ready in case they tried anything but miraculously they didn't: Ryder had kept his word to them both.

Rubbing his arm and shoulder to relive some of the pain, Ryder looked back at them and said that he kept his end of the deal and now that they can finally speak.

"I'm Ryder, Pathfinder of the Andromeda Initiative, this here is a turian by the name of Vetra Nyx, that is Peebee and she's an asari, and the other human is Liam. Now, who are you two?" He asks, taking his now useless helmet off so that he can look at them both with own eyes.

Ben decided to go first, seeing how Outcast had made no intention of going at all.

"Uh hi, I'm Benjamin Carmine, and the person next to me is uh… Outcast. I don't know if that's his real name or not, but his AI, SECOND, told us that we've been inside of that room for like six hundred years. Pleased to meet you."

At hearing the very human name, the group stops and raises an eyebrow at the man; telling him to take his helmet off to see what they're dealing with.

"Oh sure, absolutely."

With that said, Ben takes his off and them his face; his _human_ face.

"See? We're cooperating… uh Outcast-"

"I'm not taking my mask off, especially to strangers and aliens." Came the response, interrupting Ben as the others looked at him with curiosity.

"You're both… human? How is that possible? No one's been down here for centuries!"

At this, Outcast shakes his head and tells them that they've been in suspended animation for over six hundred years within a stasis pod, about how they were placed here to be protected from whatever was happening to the galaxy while they were put into that room behind them.

"Besides, your AI, SAM, can confirm this."

"How do you know about SAM?"

"I have an AI that literally lives inside this suit, or more specifically; my brain. They've been talking to each other for a few minutes now, why do you think your AI has been silent?" He explains, his tone still relatively hostile towards them.

"SAM?"

"Outcast is telling the truth, Ryder; all preliminary data that has been shared with me confirms everything that they are saying. Not only that, but they are indeed from the Milky Way galaxy: there is no other explanation as to how they were inside the room when the vault has been sealed for centuries." The AI explained, making everyone stop dead in their tracks at the revelation that was unveiled right before their eyes.

"Holy shit… that would make them…" Liam started to say, but couldn't finish his sentence due to shock over what they were told.

"The first humans, no the first _Milky Way_ species to enter the galaxy." Vetra finished, causing both Outcast's and Ben's heads to snap towards her.

"What?"

Ben raised a finger at the woman, it shaking at what she had just said.

"I… I understood that. Outcast, I understood what she said! This is AWESOME!"

"Yeah, yeah kid; probably the translation matrixes that the person who was studying us placed into our heads… or at least that's what SECOND is informing me about. Give it time, we should be able to understand the asari any second now." He remarks, his voice still hostile even when Ben's was kind and lively.

Ryder asks him about why he's so against the non-humans in his group, to which Outcast had explained that the last alien species he had met had killed three of his closest friends, slaughter hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, and that they nearly destroyed all of Earth.

"Earth has never been invaded; I mean sure, Shanxi was during the First Contact War with the turians-"

"Never heard of them. The aliens I'm talking about are called the ceph. Thanks to them, I have the nanosuit here, and I used it to kill as many of them as I could. And save your questions; SECOND will send you any relevant data about myself and Carmine here to your AI. In speaking of that, SAM has informed me that you all are… hunting for golden worlds for the Initiative and that there are hostile aliens that are the _'shoot first and don't ask questions ever'_ type. If you'll allow it, I'd like to help you all get rid of these alien motherfuckers, these _kett_. Wherever I go, the kid follows; we're a package deal."

With that bombshell dropped on them and SAM backing everything they say to each other, Ryder was hard-pressed between a rock and a hard place. But something his dad told him always stuck with him. Use whatever you have against your back to your advantage.

"Deal."

The rest however, weren't pleased.

"You can't be serious Ryder! They attacked us and nearly killed you!" Liam protested, clearly upset at the man's decision.

"Hell, if he's able to beat not only my ass, but your ass, Vetra's ass, and Peebee's ass _at the same time_ and _singlehandedly_, I want this guy on our side. Besides, those moves and the way he fought screams military. Add in the fact that he lifted you up with a single arm and tossed you like a dozen feet into Peebee like you weighed nothing, that screams that he's at least a strong as the krogan. With that in mind, let's get out of here and set down the outpost marker: we've got people waiting for us. Afterwards, we'll have a conference in the Tempest, okay?"

With that said and done, the five people leaves the vault and heads up to the surface to finally leave: for four people it's been roughly forty minutes, but to two, it's been six hundred years.

And a lot has changed since then.

* * *

**And that's the end of this chapter. Now the Ben and Outcast has been introduced, it should be blatantly obvious that the man hates aliens. If you want, think of him being similar to Psycho im regardd to how the man feels about aliens.**

**That's all for now and I'll see you all next time!**


	3. Trouble on the Homefront

**I did say that I would update this story once or twice a month, but with that out of the way, here's a new chapter for you all to read!**

**If you've read my other story's new chapter, then you can see all that has happened to me in the past two weeks, but here's a recap for those who haven't:**

**It was good, we had a great time during Thanksgiving, and everything is well.**

**Review Time:**

**Mythian: Exactly! Well as smooth as a vehicle with no shocks or suspension system going through the Rocky Mountains at full speed...**

**Blaze: Yeah, his sidearm was taken from him when the parasites were currently rearranging his insides with their mouths... at least his lancer was upgraded though, so that's a plus.**

**Daedra: A very spikey alien with a sore face, at that.**

**Guest: You're welcome and thank you! I loved the Carmine's throughout the games and will continue to write about them in this story, AHoO, and that story's sequel, when it comes out.**

**With that done, here's another chapter for you all to read and enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Three: Trouble on the Homefront**

"Okay, okay everyone, settle down. We're here to talk and that's what we're going to do. Now onto more important matters: the two new and fairly interesting recruits to our band of crazy people." Ryder tells them, all focus now being directed at Ben and Outcast; one who was sitting down and twiddling his thumbs and the other standing up with his arms crossed over his chest.

Standing up, Ben takes his helmet off and smiles at everyone while giving them a polite wave.

"Hi, my name's Benjamin Carmine I was born in the Tyran Memorial Hospital on the first of Harvest, on the planet Sera, but you guys can call me whatever you want. I was a private within the Coalition of Ordered Governments and I am proficient in using assault rifles and even sniper rifles. I'm the youngest in my family, I have three brothers… well I guess not anymore since… Anyways, your… Pathfinder here found my friend and I inside of a vault that we've been in for over six hundred years, evidently when they activated the… whatever it was called. I hope to get to know you all and that we can become friends as well." He tells them, introducing himself and giving off a kind demeanor as he takes his seat.

Now it was the other one's turn.

"Call me Outcast; my name hasn't mattered since I was twenty-one. I have over twenty-six years of military experience, I can utilize any weapon given to me, and add in the fact that with the suit and an AI in my head, I am a supersoldier. That is all you need to know and all that I'm saying about my personal life." He told them, not leaving any room for nonsense as he kept his stance and only moved his head around to inspect anything that may have caught his eye or his AI's attention.

After he was finished talking, Cora had to voice her opinions and input about the matter concerning the suit and the AI.

"Wait, what AI and what makes that suit so special?"

Shaking his head at the woman, he begins his explanation of what the suit is and what it comes with.

"This is the CryNet Nanosuit 2.0, but with all that Prophet and I went through, it'll be safe to say that it's a 2.5 or even a 3.0 at this point; a vast improvement over the other models by lightyears. The original Nanosuit 1.0 saved my life back in 2018, after I was involved in a major car wreck in New York City that left my body and organs a torn mess. This suit in particular can render the user invisible to virtually any known forms of sensors and equipment by bending the photons and wavelengths from radio, x-ray, and even gamma wave spectrums around the person, effectively making them undetectable.

It could also use a function simply called armor mode that allows the user to take even more punishment than normal, it does this by focusing power into the Cryfibril nano-weave that makes up the suit. In doing so, it practically makes me invulnerable for a limited time, basically it increases my durability and resiliency overall but at reduced mobility; this allows me to not only survive explosions at ground zero, but also numerous forms of weaponry and damage overall. From bullets to energy weapons, explosions, to even fall damage.

The last ability is called the power function; it allows me to have greater strength and coordination for my body so that it can adapt to any situation that I am faced with. From ripping turrets off of their hinges and carrying them around, practically negating any recoil that a weapon would normally have when fired, being able to run in excess of thirty miles per hour, and even picking people and objects up and using them as weapons.

Finally, the suit removes any of the normal necessities that a normal person would require: food and drink items are practically redundant and I no longer require them, sleep is also a moot point because it no longer does anything for me, and the fact that I don't have to take a shit or need to piss anymore; all thanks to the nanosuit."

After finishing the long and hefty explanation, Outcast asks them if there are any questions that they have and if so, he'll answer them to the best of his abilities.

Ryder, understandably, was the first.

"What about your AI?"

Telling him that his AI is called SECOND, an acronym meaning _Semiautonomous Enhanced Combat Ops: Neuro-integration Delivery AI_, and it is his job to give him real-time data on any situation so that he can accomplish any task that he is given; from search and destroy, flanking and other maneuvers, and even espionage and sabotage missions. He uses the tactical visor and nano-vision abilities to further raise his chances of a mission success.

"What you're saying is that your AI does what our SAM does, except it's always with you? That's neat."

"Essentially."

With the next question coming from Liam, the man asks him what does he mean by basic necessities being redundant, to which Outcast explains that any food or drink that he consumes is broken down at the molecular level which the suit will use to fuel itself and its energy reserves. With this happening every time that he does eat, he never has to use the bathroom as a result. And the fact that the suit keeps him healthy to the point that he no longer needs sleep as a necessity and only does it when he wants to pass the time.

With Cora up next, she asks him about his military service record and the fact that in the late 2010's humanity has only sent probes and rovers to other planets in their solar, and that their first contact happened in 2157.

"Fuck if I know, SECOND here has been going through your codex and learning everything about it. Your Earth and mine are two completely separate entities: you've never had had contact with the ceph, you've never had any form of nanosuit built ever, and you all don't even have energy weapons. Face it, we're not from the same universe. End of discussion. Anyone else?"

Vetra asked him about how he and Ben had been inside of a remnant bunker, to which he had explained that after destroying a ceph litho-ship, he was drawn into the event horizon of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge that the ceph uses for faster than light travel, and since it basically cuts a whole directly into the fabric of space-time, he must've went through one of the gaps within the portal and it dropped him off at their doorstep. Afterwards, they had ran tests and studies on them both before putting them into stasis pods and sealed them in a bunker, the one that they found both him and Benjamin in.

"Besides that, I don't know and the same goes for Benjamin there; SECOND was the only who was active at the time and even then, he doesn't know much besides what they had told him. Now, I'm answering two more questions so who's going to ask them? Yes, the blue one."

"Is your suit able to interface with any remnant technology, and if so, then how does it do it?"

"I can't answer your question at the moment, as I myself don't know and I haven't interacted with anything relating to the tech to get an idea on how it ticks, except a couple of weapons, but I'm sure that SECOND can figure it out sooner or later."

With that explanation said and done, Drack, the krogan that they picked up at the new settlement site, had asked him about his bow and what it could do.

"It's called a Predator bow, a weapon made by Niles Archery and fielded by CryTech Industries, it is capable of using numerous arrow types for any situation that calls for it: normal arrow heads that can be retrieved after use, an electrical arrow that sends out a fatal shock to anyone or thing that it touches but it is best used in water, for obvious reasons, an air-burst arrow that has a proximity fuse that will detonate if it gets close enough to a target if I miss my shot, and a super thermite arrow that is capable of destroying hostile armored vehicles and personnel with ease. It has three draw weight settings that determines just how much power it has when in use: the lowest, which is a one-hundred-pound draw weight, is best used to rapidly deal with hostiles but has a lower range and damage output. The second is the medium function, which is a little over five-hundred-pound draw weight, and it is the standard setting for this bow and is the most balanced between distance, speed, and range for any of my arrows. The last one is the maximum draw weight, and it requires the suit's full power and strength to pull back; it has a staggering and unbelievable draw weight of six-thousand-pounds, or even more, and is capable of killing practically anything that it hits. Psycho, an old friend of mine, said that it could stop a rhino dead in its tracks."

"Six-thousand-pounds my ass." Drack said, his disbelief making itself known to everyone in the room.

Grabbing the bow and setting it on the maximum draw weight then setting it down on the table, he merely tells the krogan good luck as he steps back and crosses his arms, waiting for the krogan to fail miserably.

Standing up and grabbing the bow, Drack looks it over before shrugging at how small it is, before pulling back the drawstring so that everyone can see that the man was bluffing.

Only to stop as he realizes that he's only pulling it back by a couple of inches.

"What the…" He mutters, now using his absolute strength to get the string to pull all the way to the back, but still not succeeding in pulling it back by another half inch or so.

With Outcast shaking his head, he steps up the krogan and takes the bow from his hands before he himself pulls the string all the way back, the tension and stress of the string being pulled taut being audible to everyone in the room, before slowly guiding it back to its resting place.

"I wasn't lying when I said that it requires the suit's full power and strength to pull it back. And now that you realize it, this weapon is easily my most lethal one available to me; with this, I am literally capable of killing anything that heads my way." Finishing that, Outcast turns and leaves the area, Ben following the man shortly after he had left.

With Ryder talking to the rest of the team and living arrangements being made, it was time for them to head back to the Nexus so that they could refuel and replenish their food reserves, now that they have a few additional mouths to feed.

It was going to be a long day for him, Ryder just knew it.

* * *

"We're landing on Nexus in about five minutes; I thought that you both might've wanted to come and see it, you know? Not everyday that you get to see something like this from where you all come from right?" Ryder asks both Ben and Outcast, watching as the younger one snap his head towards him and nod excitedly while the other shrugs noncommittally.

"Hell yeah, that sounds awesome; right Outcast?"

"Eh, I wasn't too interested in travelling to space; too busy killing ceph and trying to keep Cell from destroying the planet. But sure, why not?"

"Sweet. Just follow everyone else out of the docking chamber and just go wherever you want. There's the docking bay and a few shops setup but you two don't have any credits, that's our form of currency, so there's the cultural exchange center where you can learn all about our people and where we came from. There's also the operations center where, you guessed it, all systems and operations occur here. Anyways, SAM told me that we arrived so follow me and I'll show you around there." He tells them, climbing up the ladder with the two of them in tow.

Stepping out of the docking tube, the three of them are crowded by a group of people who are more than excited to see Ryder, asking him if it was true that they have a new world to settle.

However, the lead turian, a female if Outcast is correct, tells them all to settle down, before introducing herself to Ryder.

"I'm Lieutenant Sajax, Kandros' aide. They all want to see you. Real hope again- it's been… awhile…" She trails off, now becoming aware of the two rather _alien_ people that are accompanying him.

One robotic looking and the other looking as if there is an alien wearing armor.

"First contact…" She breathlessly mutters, bringing up her omni-tool and contacting Kandros and informing him what is currently happening and tells him to get the others and bring them to the docking bay ASAP.

"Wait, just hold on a minute; let me explain-"

"I'm sorry Pathfinder, but this situation is currently way above our pay-grade: Kandros, Tann, Addison and Kesh will take care of it." She interrupts, one arm on her sidearm and the other outstretched to keep the group of people behind her.

"_Threat detected: counting ten plus foot-soldiers on ground floor and upper floor armed with assault rifle class weaponry and one sniper rifle class weapon. Tactical options: available."_ SECOND tells both Ben and Outcast, highlighting everything that was said to them as the both look around with their own eyes.

Opening up a private line with Ben, Outcast tells him to remain calm and stay still until whoever is in charge arrives.

"But what if they shoot us?" He asks, fidgeting in place at having so many weapons trained on the two of them.

"They won't." Outcast assures, his armor function ready to activate at the first sign of them turning aggressive.

They didn't have to wait long: in five minutes, a turian, a salarian, a krogan, and a human quickly makes their way to the front area where the commotion is happening.

"Stand down Sajax, we'll take it from here." The turian orders her, labeling him as Kandros to the newcomers.

"Heard the warning and came here to investigate; it seems as if the Pathfinder did find a new species. I am Director Jurun Tann, head of the Andromeda Initiative." The salarian tells them, making both Ben and Outcast look at each other.

"Um hello, I would speak on behalf of ourselves but I am not the one in charge, my companion here," Ben motions to Outcast, causing all four sets of eyes to now be drawn to him, "is instead the person that you should speak with, if you all have any questions for us."

"_Message received: thanks for having SECOND write a script for me to read; I don't want to mess things up."_

Stepping up to the front, Outcast goes into a position of parade rest as he begins his first confrontation with the heads of the Initiative.

"Director, pleasure to meet you. Now, who are your colleagues here? I'd like to be introduced to them." He tells them, going into parade rest just for formalities and not out of respect.

He didn't know them, therefore he doesn't have any respect for them.

"Of course; if my colleagues will introduce themselves…" Tann trailed off, extending an arm out and motioning for his colleagues to continue where he left off.

Stepping up first was the turian and judging from the body language and scans that he took of the alien; it appears that he is suffering from sleep deprivation and a low caloric intake; SECOND informed him that his overall threat assessment was low.

Tired and starving aliens, that would've made Psycho laugh.

"I am Tiran Kandros, a turian and head of the militia and police force here on the Nexus." The man answered, showing obvious signs of military discipline and formalities.

Up next was the human, Foster Addison, and she is the head of the Colonial Affairs Department.

After her was the krogan, who stepped up the the two of them and gave them both a look over, inspecting them with her eyes before she took a step back and nodded to herself. "I'm Nakmor Kesh, the Superintendent of the Nexus. If it involves solving paperwork for either of the three or four departments, I'm the one who generally gets called on to fix it. Enjoy your stay here on the Nexus." She tells them, looking over to her colleagues as they all nodded their heads in agreement.

Then came the discussion on them.

"Who are you two and why do you appear to have similar statures to humanity?" Tann asked them, his eyes rapidly observing them as both Benjamin and Outcast looked to each other.

"The universe is massive, Director; there are more stars than words ever uttered by all of our people combined. Is it truly unwarranted to believe that there are species who look similar to each other? There are the asari and the humans, after all. But to answer your question, these are merely suits of armor that we wear, nothing more. Though my suit is much more powerful and advanced than my associate's here. You could all this suit a suit... power armor, if you will. As for why it looks like this? Hell if I know, I didn't make it." He explains, motioning over his form as Benjamin nodded in agreement with his explanation.

With introductions out of the way, they were led to the Cultural Exchange area where both people could learn more about the species that came here.

"Better settle in kid; we've got a lot of time and a lot of learning ahead of us." Outcast tells him, causing Ben to groan in despair.

"I hated school…"

"Me too kid, me too."

* * *

Learning about humanity was the first thing that the two of them did; learning that they came from Earth, about how it's one of the most diverse ecosystems discovered, and that humanity is the newest species to the galaxy and that they are ready to show everyone else a thing or two.

The turians were next on the list, with them learning that they came from a planet called Palaven, that their bodies are dextro based DNA and that the carapace is metal-like to protect them from their sun's rays. They had encountered humanity and had a brief conflict with them which almost escalated into full scale war; had the Council not intervened.

"So their humanity's first contact was hostile? Isn't that like what your humanity went through?" Ben asked, looking at the turian VI with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, only this time peace was settled between them while I and a few others had to kill nearly every last one of the ceph that we encountered."

"Damn…"

Learning about the asari, salarians, and the krogan had been an eyeopener for the two: mainly because the asari are able to reproduce with any species, the salarians being an extremely short lived species at only forty years, and the krogan having been practically sterilized by the turians and the salarians over some rebellion that took place nearly two thousand years ago.

They may have learned that information from SECOND doing a data mine on it's systems.

Who can say for sure though?

With SECOND recording everything that they have learning, the two decided that it was time to see the rest of the station: the hydroponics garden, a bar, the operations center, and a few other places. After they learned the station's layout, they bid their escorts goodbye to see the station for themselves, though it took Ryder to convince them to let them see the station for themselves.

After the party had left did Outcast shake his head, looking at Ryder as Ben was looking over at the hydroponics area.

"If only the poor bastards realized that they were talking to a human." He said, already not liking the salarian from the interactions that they just had with the man.

He was a shifty son of a bitch, that much was obvious.

"Yeah, no kidding. What's got your attention Ben?" He asks, noticing that the person isn't paying attention to what they were saying and was instead looking far off with his head tilted.

Raising a hand up and pointing in front of him, he tells him that he's pointing at the protest that is currently going on.

"Protest? Oh shit…"

With Ryder going to the front to see what is going on, the two of them decided to see the operations center for themselves; not much sense in standing around when there was much to learn.

* * *

Benjamin stepped off the lift that took them to their destination, Outcast telling him that he's going to look around and for him to get into contact with him if he needed something.

"Sure thing, I'll be up here; see you around."

"Seeya kid and try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone."

With that being said, they both part ways; one heading up the ramp to what was going on and the other just meandering about with no destination in mind.

That was, until he seen that turian from the ship, Vetra if he remembers correctly, walking up a ramp at the far end of the area. She seemed as if she was doing something, but he really did feel bad for punching her in the face and wanted to make it up to her somehow, so he decided to see what she was doing.

Following where she had gone, he chose to ignore the stares that were being directed towards him in favor of catching up to her, thinking of what to say and do for her to earn her forgiveness.

That was something that both Devin and Clay had taught him; if he ever did something accidentally and it had hurt someone, make it up to them whenever you can, however you can.

With him now at the back end of the room, he sees the woman in question talking to a another turian, this one seemingly livelier and more upbeat than the other.

"Oh, now I see where he hit you now; right in the middle of your face! Wow, that had to have hurt." She commented, leaning in closer to Vetra to get a better look at the mark that Ben had left.

"It sure didn't feel good Sid, not one bit. Now, how's everything going on up… what did I tell you about not looking at someone when they were talking to you?"

"Well I would look at you, if it weren't for the more interesting sight standing behind you!" She tells her, pointing behind the woman and causing her to turn and see what has her sister's attention.

Seeing Ben standing there and giving her a polite wave, Vetra groaned in annoyance and shook her head at the fact that the very subject matter of their sentence was now standing behind her and had her sister's complete and undivided attention.

Why does the universe hate her?

"Can I meet him?" Sid asks, but before Vetra could even answer, she waves him over and somehow appears to get even more energetic than before.

"WOW, Vetra wasn't lying when she told me that you looked fearsome. My name's Sid, Vetra's younger sister; pleased to meet you!"

Ben had relaxed when the turian wasn't going to berate him over him hurting Vetra; he never did like getting in trouble over something that was easily avoidable.

Scratching the back of his neck, he introduces himself to her, telling her his name and what had happened was an accident and that he was sorry about it.

"Why are you apologizing to me? I thought what you did was awesome! So… can you tell me all about it? What was it like, how did it make you feel, did she fall down? Did-" She is interrupted when Vetra drags her away from the startled man, looking at the girl in exasperation as she lets go.

"SID, let him breathe; you were practically climbing on him before he could even figure out what was happening! Sorry about that, Sid gets excited way too easily and I have to reign her back in." Vetra tells him, giving the younger turian a scrutinizing glare as Ben shrugs.

"Hey it was no big deal; I was the exact same way years ago, and even then, my two oldest brothers usually had to calm me down. And about punching your sister; I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean to and I was startled by her just showing up in front of me."

"Why are you apologizing, I thought it was funny when she told me. Don't look at me like that Vetra, it was and I'm seventeen now! According to humans, I'm almost an adult and therefore entitled to my opinions."

That was when the familiar sight of two siblings arguing with each other started; the older one trying to be the one in control while the younger one was not listening to what they were saying.

It reminds him of a time when all of his brothers would get into moments like this when they were growing up. Good times.

After their argument was settled, Sid waved goodbye to the both of them, telling Ben to come back and talk to her some more while Vetra shook her head at her younger sister's wording.

"You make it sound like a date, Sid."

"If that's what makes you the most upset, then yes; I guess we're dating now."

Ben could only stand there in shock at what he had just heard: he only wanted to come and talk to them so that he could apologize for his actions, and now he was locked in a date with the younger sister of the woman he was going to apologize to.

Devin would be laughing at him, if he seen what happened. He was sure of that much.

"Let's go Ben, before anything else happens that someone might regret later on." Vetra said, guiding him down the ramp while giving her sister a scrutinizing glare.

"Seeya later Ben! I hope that I can talk to you some other time, you when the old people aren't around!" she says, waving at them as she returns to work on the terminal where she stood at.

"Bye…" He weakly muttered, his mind still stuck on that one sentence that she had said to Vetra.

After leaving operations, Vetra looked back at Ben and noticed that he was unusually quiet; sitting down on the seats in the transit car as had one arm on crossed on his lap and the other holding his head up.

Sitting down across from him, she asks him if he's alright; what she got in return was not something that she was expecting.

Crying.

"Are… are you crying? Why are you crying Ben, was it from what Sid said back there? She was only joking about the whole dating thing okay? There's no need to get worked up about it."

Taking his helmet off and dropping it to the floor, he looks up at Vetra with bloodshot eyes as he shakes his head.

"It's not that… I- I had a family once, back home. Clay, Devin, Anthony and my parents… we all made it so far into the war that… that we thought that all of us were going to see it end. Then Devin dies at Ilima city ten years into the war, Anthony followed him a couple of years later, and I fall into a damn worm and get eaten by these bug-monster things! FOURTEEN YEARS INTO THE WAR, AND HALF OF MY FAMILY DIES!" He screams, standing abruptly and slamming his fist into the glass of the car as hard as he could manage; which causes the glass to fracture and bulge out from the hit, causing Vetra to stop dead in her tracks.

If he could do that to industrial grade plexiglass made to withstand massive trauma, then she'd hate to be on the receiving end of one of his full force punches.

And she thought the punch that he hit her with hurt.

Taking deep breaths, Ben sits back down and cradles his head as another wave of tears comes from him.

"I… I left Clay alone… What kind of brother does that? Mom, dad, Clay, Anthony, and Devin are all dead now considering the fact that I've been inside of that damn vault for six hundred years; hell, even sarge is dead, my hero and the man I idolized is dead too! I… I'm the only one left… and what do I have to show for it?" He asks her, his face and voice showing obvious pain as he tries to look for an answer to a question that has none.

Vetra, upon seeing him like this, couldn't help but pity him; it was obvious that he was in a lot of emotional pain, and whatever this war was it obviously caused him great stress. He was only a kid; a kid sent to fight, kill, and die in a man's war.

Just what kind of enemy was he fighting?

Picking his helmet up and giving back to him, Vetra tells him that whatever happened to him back then doesn't describe who he is now and that his family and whoever his sergeant was, they would tell him to get ahold of himself and to never give up.

"They wouldn't want to see you like this Ben; if they were even a fraction of what you told me, then I know that they would want you to continue on and to live for them and for yourself. Your brothers cared for you in ways that I don't know, but as an older sibling myself, I can tell you this: if Sid were to be left alone in this life, I would want her to keep on going, to keep living her life to the fullest, because that's all that us older siblings want for our younger brothers and sisters. Is that what your family and your sergeant would want from you?" She asks him, watching as he shook his head yes as he regained control of his breathing and looked the woman in her eyes.

Grabbing the helmet and shaking his head, Ben puts it back on before standing back up with his head held high.

"Thanks for that Vetra, I… I really appreciate it. If there's ever anything that you need from me, I'll make sure that you get it. I promise."

With that said, the two of them walks out into the docking bay, with Vetra showing Ben around to see the sights and what there is to do.

All in all, it made Ben feel better; not just about himself, but about his situation in general.

* * *

Outcast was annoyed at the moment: Director Tann had been asking him questions nonstop about the vault located on Eos, where he and his colleague had come from, what were their plans, and if they had anything to do with the structures that litter the landscape on many of the worlds.

"For the last time Director; we've been in stasis for the last six hundred years, my friend and I have zero affiliation with the structures, and you all can have that planet we came from. In a week or two, the radiation will be cleared out to the point that you can walk outside ass naked and not having to worry about cancer."

He's had to answer those questions three times already, and add in the fact that Kandros had called everyone for a meeting about the protesters meant that Tann had to drag him with them to get an opinion about the affairs.

Said something about having an_ outsider's opinion_ on the matter would give them insight from a new and fresh perspective.

"It doesn't matter at this point Tann; we've already gathered enough data from SAM to fill in the blanks. Now onto the matter at hand: the protesters. What should we do about them?" Kesh asks, leaning on the table to get more comfortable.

"I say we go in there and march them all out, with force if necessary; the hydroponics area is too important for us to lose and they know that." Kandros responds, his arms crossed over his chest as he looks down at the data being displayed.

"Pathfinder what do you think we should do?"

When Addison had asked this, Ryder tells them that they were here to not break families apart and that the longer this situation goes on the more likely it would be that the situation would escalate to the point where there'd be another riot.

"We have an entire planet! That has to account for something right? You four even heard the man here," Ryder points at Outcast, "say that the radiation would be gone very soon! That means that food could be gathered for those we get out of stasis." He tells them, his decision being made clear by stating the facts that they had at the moment.

"It's not that simple Ryder; there are systems put in place-" Tann is cut off from Outcast, with the man having enough of their arguing and fighting to the point where it was starting to piss him off.

"Will you shut the fuck up, sit down, and god damn listen? The longer you all put this off, the more it will hurt you all in the long run: with nothing being done, it makes it seem like you all have absolutely no control over what is happening and do you all know what that means? It means that you all are appearing as weak and incapable of providing to everyone on this station. That means that more people will join their cause, more people will publicly go against everything that you four stand for, it means that if you all face this harmless and peaceful protest with armed thugs marching them out at gunpoint, you all will have a shit storm right at your front door with several thousand people wondering why you four are in charge. Release the people from stasis and I guarantee you that they will be more than willing to help you all with any problems that you all are facing: shortage on food and water, militia issues, general maintenance, hell even those APEX missions that Ryder and Kandros were talking about earlier, with them gathering supplies and necessities. Help them now, so that you all have more hands on this station to keep it from tearing itself apart from the seams." He tells them, having SECOND bring up all the information that he has gathered and the conclusions that come with them onto the holographic display, with percentages and statistics highlighted for everyone to see.

"Well said, Outcast. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got people to get out of stasis." Ryder tells them, leaving with Outcast following not far behind him.

"Do they always bitch and complain like that, or were they trying especially hard today?"

"Beats me."

* * *

With the protesters dealt with, both Ryder and Outcast decided that it was time to head back to the Tempest; one finishing everything that needed to be done and the other tired of the political climate that is permeating throughout the station. With them both now on the transit car, Ryder takes one look at the window and whistles, stating that someone wasn't happy.

Taking a single look at the glass, Outcast shrugged and continued to stand in silence, content with standing and waiting for their ride to reach its destination.

"So, I know you said that you wouldn't answer any more questions but I have to know; why don't you ever get out of your armor? I mean, yeah it looks comfortable… maybe, but being in a nice pair of pants and a shirt to relax in always beats armor." Ryder asks him, motioning towards his attire as Outcast looks at him.

"I'll die."

"Wait, what? You'll die?"

"The suit is bonded with my physiology on a cellular level, hell maybe even microscopic. The process is called symbiosis; the suit does everything for me and if it were to be removed, my body will go into shock, I'd probably get a seizure, and my heart will stop. All at the same time. It takes special equipment, time, and surgery to remove the suit from the host and have them not die. Prophet had taken his suit off and gave it to a man named Alcatraz, before blowing his brains out to sever the connection. Since there's no suit cradle here, and no one who knows how the suit works, if I were to be removed from it, I would die a very agonizing, painful, and slow death." Outcast explains, his voice level and collected to the point where it kind of put Ryder off a bit at how casual the man was when he spoke about himself dying.

What would cause such a man to that?

With him finishing that explanation, Outcast goes back to staring at the opposite wall in silence, all the while Ryder was looking at the with wide eyes as he gains a new outlook on the man's situation.

"Holy shit… all these amazing feats and abilities and the only downside is that you're dead if it ever comes off. That's one hell of a trade-off, if you ask me."

"Mhmm. You could say that I'm in the same situation as whoever these _quarians_ are: can't take the suit off, having to revolve our lives around it, and every decision we make is because of the situation that life has put us in." He explains, remaining casual about his plight and showing no signs of apprehension about what had happened.

With that in mind, Ryder had asked him about how he was put inside the suit, to which Outcast responded that he needed to forget the question because he isn't answering them.

Standing up, the two of them leaves the tram and heads for the Tempest, both of them wanting to leave the Nexus to get back into the Heleus Cluster to hunt down the active vault that they had discovered back at Eos.

"Can't wait to see what you can do against whoever we're going up against."

"Same here. Let's get this done so we can finish your mission."

* * *

**And that wraps up this chapter! The next one will be out New Years Day and it'll be about the interactions with the angara and the crew will meet Jaal.**

**I hope you all enjoyed this chaptter and I'll see you all next time!**

**Goodbye!**


	4. Trouble with the Neighbors

**I HATE being an essential worker, honestly: don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I'm helping people get through this whole COVID ordeal, but the company itself is treating us like hell, cutting our hours down significantly, having us do all sorts of odds and ends to make sure that the store is clean all the time, and if you aren't able to get anything done because of the amount of people that are coming through your store and you having to go behind them and make sure that they aren't A) stealing, B) making a mess, C) causing a scene, or even the infamous D) a combination of the three, then you'll get in trouble. (Infamous D lol)**

**Other than that fustercluck, my grandmother was sick with pneumonia recently, and with her suffering from COPD, I had volunteered to watch over her for a bit until she got better, but in my infinite wisdom, I forgot to bring my laptop with me to work on my stories, and since she has no internet or any cell service (from my cell provider, at least) at her home, I wasn't able to go online and get the documents from there.**

**FML, but b****etter late than never, I suppose and this chapter is late by a fuck ton.**

**I guess as compensation, however, this chapter is literally longer than any other that I've written thus far: sitting at literally just under 11k words (the author's not not included)! I guess it doesn't help the fact that I basically threw two or three missions into this chapter thinking that they were small enough to fit in a 5k to 8k word count. Nope. So, there's that at least.**

**Review Time:**

**1Jesus: I appreciate that you enjoyed it thus far! But, honestly working on another fic entirely is going to way too much of a strain on me right now and I deeply apologize for that. Though I will say that you've got a lead on how it'd go, though for myself I find it easier to write crossovers because I can pull from two sources of material than just one. Other than that, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'm sorry about not responding sooner.**

**GCU: The nanosuit wouldn't have the schematics for those weapons, but for the mike, SECOND could possibly find a way to bring a weapon that is very similar into Outcast's arsenal, but as with all things, the required materials and information needed to ensure that it doesn't explode will be very costly. As for the whole shapeshifting thing? All I have to say is this, :)**

**Blaze: Since Benjamin didn't see much of the war from the frontlines, he will be in second place next to Outcast, considering the man is a seasoned veteran who's been fighting aliens for a long time, and how he has more combat skill, knowledge, and training than Ben does. But don't be worried; Ben will still be a major character in this story. And Vetra would probably skin him and her sister if that happened, lol.**

**RageLord: Here's the more you requested! Sorry for not posting sooner, details are above, and thank you for supporting this story! And you are most certainly right about Outcast: he does not care about people's feelings and he most certainly does not like beating around the bush. You'll find out why in a later chapter.**

**PS: This chapter is over a third of the overall word count lol.**

**I hope you all enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Four: Trouble with the Neighbors**

"What in the fuck are you?" Outcast asked the newcomer, his arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the hangar wall, looking at the newest addition to their crew who was currently inspecting the ship, seemingly familiarizing the interior so that he knows where he is going.

Jaal was startled from the sudden voice, turning to find a strange person in even stranger armor looking into his eyes with a blood red visor, his stance appearing at ease to the untrained eye, but was obviously ready to spring into action should something occur.

Clearing his throat, Jaal opened his mouth to answer the question, but was ultimately shut down as the man had shook his head, muttering to himself as he walked out of the area and elsewhere in the ship, leaving Jaal alone once again as he felt confusion from the attitude that he was just given.

"Hey Jaal, you doing okay there?" Came a feminine voice to the man's right, with it belonging to Vetra, the turian as they were called, her head tilted as she noticed his confusion.

"Yes… who was that man that was here? I've never seen anything like what he is wearing… Could it be some form of armor? Maybe an advanced exoskeleton of sorts… or an AI." He asked her, making a few observations and announcing his thoughts to the woman in case if she knew anything about the mysterious man.

"Sounds like you've encountered our local xenophobe; his name, or at least what he goes by, is Outcast. From what I know, he's a human wearing a set of legitimate power armor, or a suit of some sort, but he doesn't like talking about the specifics of it; only giving us a generalization of what it can do, which I feel is only scratching the surface. Honestly, I don't really trust the man, but as long as he doesn't try and kill us all while we're asleep, then I can at least be courteous."

"He hates aliens?"

"Big time, but I think he just hates everyone in general; nothing personal or anything, maybe, but he isn't the social type, especially with non-humans. I don't know the specifics, but he did mention something about fighting a race called the ceph, whatever that is, and I'm guessing that gave him a bad impression of what's out there." Vetra explained, leading the man throughout the ship, acting as a personal tour guide for Jaal as he soaked up all the information that he could about the ship and its crew.

So far, he thoroughly enjoyed traveling aboard the vessel and interacting with many of the crew within it and seeing what all they would do on their off time.

He liked the young human Benjamin, if he correctly recalls that being his name, and his lively and optimistic outlook on life and its finer intricacies.

However, this was the first time he had actually met the man named Outcast, who he was informed about by Ryder that the man was rather rude when it came to casual conversation and that he was probably hiding somewhere aboard the ship at the time.

That was yesterday, which involved him spending the day familiarizing himself with the crew and a guide for the basic introduction of the Milky Way species.

A fascinating read, if you were to ask him.

But not once during the time spent reading and conversing had he met the man that he had just seen within the hangar bay.

His initial thoughts on the man were that he was rude, jaded, brooding, and an individual that the Tempest crew needed to be wary of.

But the more he thought of it, the more that he came to the conclusion that he was… separating himself from the crew, becoming an outcast in society as he is in name.

Jaal decided that it was time to take a break from the touring, telling Vetra that he would like to rest for a brief time, but that she was more than welcome to spending the time resting to help him familiarize himself with the crew even more.

Taking the offer, Vetra shrugged her shoulders and motioned for the man to follow her into the kitchen area, telling him that she'd be glad to answer any other questions that he had for her.

Upon sitting down at the table, Jaal looked at the woman and cupped both of his hands together, taking in the woman's features as he looks her up and down, before beginning.

"What are your thoughts on the crew in its entirety?"

"Gil is alright, a little chatty at times but he's a good man, nonetheless. Liam was a cop, which keeps me on my toes at times, but he seems like a decent person. Peebee is… eccentric, to say the least. Drack is a big softie when you get to know him, don't let the tough exterior get to you. Cora is a hard ass, but I know that she's trying her best to keep things as organized as possible. Suvi is just plain weird. Lexi is a good woman and a good doctor, given how long she's been in the field it doesn't surprise me. Kallo has his moments. Benjamin is a good kid with a good head on his shoulders, but other than that, he can be a bit childish at times."

Jaal nodded at what he had been told, processing the information within his mind as seemed to think of his next question.

"And what of Outcast? You failed to mention your thoughts about him and even myself, for that matter."

"I don't trust the man, he's too much of an unknown for me to start trusting him, that and he absolutely hates anyone not human, shows complete disrespect to not only the Directors at the Nexus, which I don't really care about honestly, but to everyone here on the ship. Except towards Ben, but I'm guessing that's because he and Benjamin woke up in a remnant vault together. But… I guess it doesn't help due to the fact we kinda had a hostile interaction with each other, when we first met."

When asked to clarify on she had meant, Vetra explained that they had tried to apprehend Benjamin for questioning but was stopped when the man had held them at gunpoint, which then turned into an all-out brawl with the her, Liam, Peebee, and Ryder fighting against the man, but he had systematically disabled all of them with an advanced stealth cloak, extreme precision, and brute force.

"A dangerous force when used in tandem with one another, especially when it's paired with an effective cloak." Jaal commented, visualizing the fight within his head as Vetra could only nod in agreement.

"He picked Liam up by the helmet and threw him over twenty feet into Peebee, ripped my rifle from my hands, broke it over his knee and proceeded to kick me into a wall, which cracked not only the carapace on my chest, but a couple of my ribs in the process, and had restrained and captured Ryder and then used him a live shield and held a knife to his throat to stop us from doing anything in retaliation. From what I remember, the whole thing lasted like ten of twenty seconds total. Other than that, I don't really trust nor like the man."

"A strong and intelligent warrior, and he expertly and swiftly disarmed all of you and even identified and captured the commander as a hostage. You may have placed your mistrust in him from your hostile encounter, but a warrior of his skill and caliber is invaluable to any army. Perhaps you may become allies in the future? Even friends." Jaal commented, causing Vetra to scoff at the idea, with her telling him that she doubts that would happen any time soon, much less at all.

Jaal only could only chuckle at the remark, telling her that the best of friends and allies can be found in your enemies… or that's what Ryder had told him when he asked him about friendships and other social intricacies.

He said that he got into a fight with someone from school and that they became friends the day after.

Humans are strange.

"About you, well you seem like you know what you're doing against the kett and any type of remnant tech that we find and inevitably fight against. You've been here for a couple of days, but you seem like someone that I could get along with on a daily basis." Vetra finished, standing up from her seat and leaving the man to his own devices, telling him that she'll be in the back of the ship if he needed anything from her, to which he thanked her and wished her a good day.

From what he had learned about the enigmatic man, Jaal wondered what the other crew members thought of Outcast as an individual instead of a soldier.

Maybe he should ask them himself?

* * *

Turns out that most of them either didn't have an opinion on the man or didn't like him; with the exception of Benjamin and Ryder, of course.

At least he gets to be on a mission with both the man and Ryder when they finally land on Veold and reconnect with the resistance there, so that's a plus at least.

With his gear and weapons ready, Jaal meets up with both Ryder and Outcast, with the former talking to the latter about his weapon of choice.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring a bow to a gun fight? I mean, the draw weight on it is insane, yeah, but what if there's something that gets too close to you for a bow to handle?"

"Ryder, I understand your concerns, but I literally have this thing with me at all times and have used the airburst tipped arrows on targets that were within arms reaching distance from me. Besides, nine times out of ten, I would just grab the hostile and finish them off with my bare hands; I've done it several times before, after all." He tells the man, flexing his hands for emphasis as he raises them to him.

"Right, super strength and speed and whatnot. Well, if you know what you're doing then I won't stop you, but at least consider taking something that'll help against the cold; it's supposed to be well below negative forty degrees." He warns the man, holding out a data pad for the man to read as Outcast only shrugs him off, telling him that the suit guarantees protection from near absolute zero to several thousand-degree temperatures.

(**Fun fact: Negative forty Celsius and Fahrenheit are actually the exact same temperatures. Weird.**)

Hearing that made Jaal impressed at the multitude of functions that the suit had, from cloaking, super speed and strength, faster reaction times, and an insane amount of durability.

Maybe he should get one of them for himself, if it were possible that is; when he questioned the others about it, they told him that it was the only one of its kind in the galaxy.

That's a shame.

* * *

"Wow, Suvi was not joking when she said it was cold! We need to head inside the mountain where the resistance base is located, hopefully they have some heaters in there because I'm pretty sure that my ass is ice at this point." Ryder told his team, running along the path of lights that acted as markers with Jaal falling behind and Outcast casually jogging with the man.

"We'll need to speak with Commander Anjiik when we arrive, that way we can gain knowledge of current events and what all has happened to this planet since we've lost contact." Jaal tells them, climbing up a wall of ice as he explains what they needed to do, before explaining to the two guards about why he was with two aliens and that he needed to speak with the commander in charge.

Afterwards, Ryder had spoken with a mechanic about shield upgrades for the Nomad, Jaal spoke with a woman named Do Xeel, and Outcast just stayed quiet as his AI was scanning and cataloging everything in sight within its database (which is his brain).

"This is the alien that you believe could help us, Jaal? It's… not what I had imagined from the description that you gave in your report." She said, inspecting Outcast closely as she walked up to the man.

Had she have been paying attention, she'd have heard the rifle that Outcast was carrying to faintly groan from the amount of force that was putting stress onto the handle as he only gritted his teeth at being in close proximity to the unknown.

Ryder, upon seeing what would happen if she were to actually put a hand on him, cleared his throat to gain her attention and then explained to her that he was the one that Jaal had mentioned.

"My apologies, I had assumed that from the detail and looks of the armor that he is wearing was the one who was named Ryder. So, with that being said, you must be Ryder. I'm Anjiik Do Xeel; remember the name, because if you betray us, I'll kill you all myself."

"I'd like to see you try that, bitch; maybe after I'm done slaughtering your piss poor excuse of a hideout, I can go to the other bases and hunt down the angara who are hiding there for sport."

"Outcast! Sorry, my friend here doesn't take threats lightly, especially if they concern our lives. But we have no intention of betraying you; we just want to make peace with you all." Ryder immediately butted in, cutting off any more comments from the two as he looked apologetically at the woman and exasperatedly at Outcast who only shrugged in response.

"We'll see about that, Pathfinder; for now, if you do want to help, go speak with one of our lookouts who watch the valley. They'll know where we need the most help and where it'll be the most beneficial to us." She told him, stepping aside to let the three of them pass, before telling Jaal to be careful and that he should watch his back.

Ryder was happy to avoid a confrontation, Outcast was indifferent about the affair, and Jaal could only laugh as Ryder was trying to scold the man but was ultimately failing to do that due to the fact that he was essentially talking to a brick wall.

"Relax Ryder, Do Xeel took no offense to what was said to her back there; in fact, I think she's actually impressed that someone stood up to her so quickly after being threatened. That is high praise coming from her, Outcast; perhaps you're better at making friends than what you thought initially?"

"I'd rather have my organs torn to shreds and ejected through the windshield of a wrecked car… oh wait, I have." Came the dry remark, with the man stepping out of the cave, ignoring the question that came from Ryder, and inspecting the valley below, making sure to take time to switch between nano-vision and his tactical visor so that SECOND could map out any locations and points of interest.

It was a very good vantage point to see most of the area, that's for sure.

Maybe these angara weren't complete idiots and full of naïve leaders and soldiers.

Maybe.

He let Ryder and Jaal do the talking when they found the scouts, sharing information between both parties and updating any information that SECOND may have missed or thought was unimportant at the time.

Which wasn't a lot.

He wonders how Benjamin is doing on the Tempest, what with how different everything was to him and how alien the aliens were.

The kid reminds him of himself when he was young; before he left for the army and before he was bonded with the nanosuit.

He just hopes that the kid will keep that attitude for the rest of his life; lord knows that he doesn't want him to end up like he did.

* * *

"Any advice for taking on the kett, Jaal? What about you Outcast, what's your opinion on them?" Ryder asks, driving the Nomad over the various snow dunes that dot the landscape as Jaal started first.

"They are like any other fighter that you may have encountered, Ryder; there are different classes for different roles, from close quarters to long range, heavy to light infantry, and they utilize animals as a means to draw us out of cover. Fight them as you would any other combatant and you'll be fine." Jaal explained, Ryder nodding his head at the information as Outcast spoke up.

"From what all I've read and seen about them, they're the type to shoot first, not ask questions later. I haven't fought them myself, but from what I've gathered thus far is that the nanosuit is more than capable of taking anything that they can throw at it, maybe even more, depending if it gets overcharged. But other than that, I'm not worried in the slightest about them giving us too much trouble in a firefight; keep your head down, your mind clear, and your trigger finger ready at all times and we'll be back on the ship before you know it." Outcast told him, his visor looking at his left hand as he twitches his fingers at intermittent intervals, which caught Jaal's curiosity.

"Overcharged? Like a battery or a circuit?"

"You're on the right track, but wrong analogy… somewhat. Think of a battery that's been overcharged, but instead of exploding it far surpasses what it could normally do for a short period of time, perhaps powering more than what it should be capable of, then reverts back to being a normal battery. In my case, the nanosuit is overcharged when it absorbs an abundance of high energy in a very short time, I've experienced this several times when fighting the ceph, and it literally makes the suit incapable of taking damage, makes energy weapons stronger, makes me run faster and hit harder than normally. Normally, a devastator, which is a large and heavy ceph unit that essentially equals a heavily armored vehicle, wouldn't be able to be damaged from a nanosuit operator's punches; but, with the right modifications that can be activated at any time, an overcharged suit can easily kill one in seconds. Pretty nifty, shame it lasts like thirty seconds if there's a sufficient power source."

Ryder could only whistle at that, knowing what the suit could already do and learning that it could even do more than that is a mind-blowing thing to achieve.

Too bad that the price is too high.

"Damn impressive, but too high of a trade-off when it comes to having that thing on you at all times."

"That it is."

"I don't mean to intrude on your conversation, but what is it that you are doing with your hand? You seem to be… doing something with it." Jaal asked, looking at said hand as Outcast looked him for a moment before looking back at his hand.

"What I'm doing is cycling through my modifications and database that is housed within the suit, seeing what's been changed about it since I've been gone from Earth. Nothing you need to worry about."

Ryder, while both occupants in the back can't see it, was grinning as he heard Outcast talking to a nonhuman and _not_ insulting him or acting hostile.

Sure he came off as a little rude with that last sentence, but he didn't call him an alien, didn't say anything rude, and actually answered his question. He just might be getting used to being around the nonhuman crew.

"And no, I'm not going to elaborate either, so stop staring and kindly forget any other questions that you may have."

Or not.

Jaal sat back into the seat and shifted his shoulders, getting comfortable in as he waited for the nomad to come to a stop at they're destination, silently contemplating on everything that he has seen and heard but couldn't understand why, after him showing courtesy and politeness to everyone aboard the Tempest, Outcast was hostile towards all non-humans.

"Who were, or are, the ceph?"

Ryder, upon hearing the question, slowed the nomad down a bit and switched the controls to all-wheel drive and waited for the answer that the man would give; whether it was an actual one, silence, or even violence remains unknown.

Just as he was about to say something to get everyone's attention off the subject, Outcast beat him to the punch.

"The ceph… the Charybdis for that matter, are a race of cephalopod-like creatures that originates from the M87 galaxy over fifty-three million light years away from Earth. They utilized an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, a complex wormhole really, to traverse this distance near instantaneously and have travelled to Earth, humanity's homeworld, in the distant past. Karl Rasch and Jacob Hargreave first found them at the Tunguska event site in the early 1900's and found their technology and used it to lengthen their lifespans, then used the rest to build up their companies so that they'd dominate the medical and technology fields. I believe that they were born in the 1860's or 70's and was still around back in 2023 and 2046."

"That would make them over a hundred and sixty, at the time. And fifty-three million light years? Damn; kinda wish we had that tech so that we can go to and from the Milky Way and here whenever we want." Ryder commented, earning a nod from Outcast as he continued on with his explanation.

"Indeed. If the ceph are in this universe, then I'm sure that their tech survived as well, considering that it was older than all of human history. Not only that, but the damn things can survive nuclear detonation and can turn any area that they are in into near absolute zero temperatures… Prophet damn near died when his suit, the first iteration of the nanosuit, malfunctioned from coming into contact with the ceph for the first time. After coming into contact with them, we lost Jester and Aztec, fellow nanosuit operators and close friends of ours, and we had to incinerate their suits so that we can deny the fucking Koreans getting ahold of it. Nomad, Psycho, Prophet, and I went through hell and back to ensure that these bastards would pay.

After the events on Lingshan was over, Cell Industries sent out their thugs to quarantine Manhattan after a ceph engineered virus swept through the city, infecting practically everyone and making it seem as if we were the ones spreading it. A lot of people died there… a lot of good people. The ceph were relentless: taking no prisoners, killing everyone, infecting the population, and awakening their technology to completely fuck over all of New York City, and we had to unfuck it. Twenty years later, we finally ended the damned war once and for all, after we killed the Alpha and destroyed an invading litho-ship."

After explaining everything, Outcast opened the door and exited the nomad, his weapons ready as he marched towards the outpost that Ryder was heading for, while Ryder and Jaal followed behind.

It seems as if they came to a partial understanding as to why he doesn't like aliens: he's been killing them for a long time and they've been killing humans equally as long.

'_I wonder if that armor is made from some of their tech.'_ Ryder thought, remembering the names of Hargreave and Rasch and how they practically made the nanosuits, and with how they had used ceph tech to enhance themselves, he wouldn't be surprised.

The outpost that they arrived at seemed as if it was carved under the ice, or was made inside of a cave, with structures and supports spread out through the area, multiple angara staring at them as they walked by, some whispering to each other and others tensing up as they passed by.

From their interactions with the kett, he doesn't blame them.

At least they had Jaal with them to show that they were friendly, Ryder was sure that the interactions with any angara so far and throughout their time on the mission to hunt for their Moshae, things wouldn't have gone as courteous as he would've hoped.

Ryder came back from speaking with the outpost commander, talking to the man to gain more information about the area and what is of interest too. With the information shared with the man, Ryder motions for his companions to get back into the nomad, telling them that he has the location sent to him on his omni-tool and that there will be a group of angara waiting for them to arrive.

"So a rescue op? Fair enough, who are we going after?" Outcast commented, his fingers twitching as he goes through the data that the man gave to him and Jaal, looking over the details as he and his AI reviews the site location and how to traverse the interior.

"Yeah, hope you don't mind that; considering you're probably the type who'd want to go in the main base and clear it out as soon as possible, I agreed to rescue the man's uncle, that way he should be able to give what we need to get this assault on the road." Ryder told him, driving the nomad to the rendezvous point as Jaal makes sure that his gear is ready.

"If he's still alive."

* * *

With this being the first encounter that Outcast will have with the kett, Jaal and Ryder are curious to see what exactly the man has in store for them and, if what he has said about the suit is true, then he's sure that the kett will be more than apprehensive about engaging him up close.

If they even get close enough to do so, that is.

With Ryder closing in on the labor camp, the three men takes the time to look over everything once more before exiting the vehicle, Ryder's and Jaal's shield and life support systems reacting to the cold almost immediately as the below zero-degree temperature meets it.

Outcast on the other hand doesn't seem too bothered by it, shouldering his rifle as he steps in line with Ryder and Jaal as the trio makes their way to the camp, seeing various figures patrolling the area with several angara trapped within machines producing an orange forcefield to keep them from escaping.

"How many do you see?" Ryder asked, looking through the scope of his sniper rifle to see who were kett and who were not.

"Seven kett ground troops in total, one or two animals with them. All in all, nine hostiles, one outfitted with heavy weaponry and two who seems to be floating around every few seconds. Four or five standard infantry units." Outcast immediately answered, his visor tracking and marking any targets that he sees as SECOND sends the relevant data to SAM so that they can have the intel as well.

"Think you can take on the heavy troopers? They are armed with handheld machine guns after all and it has proven fatal if you were targeted." Jaal warned, seeing the man look back at him and shrug nonchalantly before disappearing from sight entirely, a small indicator from the man's IFF tag is the only thing that they see of him as they watched patiently as the marker drew closer to one kett who strayed to far from his group.

The lone kett was rewarded with the ability to see behind him, his head twisted suddenly and violently as the invisible figure methodically and expertly grabbed the bottom jaw and the back of the skull, snapping the bones, tendons, and muscles effortlessly.

"Tango down, ready for the assault to commence." Is the reply they heard from the man, his voice level and calm despite the fact that he had brutally killed someone not two seconds earlier.

It also sounded as if the man was bored or distant from the act; almost like he had done it numerous times before.

With Jaal and Ryder exiting their cover, the two of them begins firing their rifles into the other kett forces, drawing their attention as two more fell to their combined firepower.

Upon their discovery, the remaining forces begins their counterattack, sending out two animals to get them out from their cover, only to have one stop dead in its tracks as an arrow blows straight through its carapace, cutting through its insides and out the other side of it, embedding itself into a storage crate on the other side of the dead animal.

At the sight, Ryder immediately knew that Outcast was perched somewhere high and out of sight, using his bow to pick off targets as they appeared in his line of sight, providing overwatch for the two of them as they dealt with the last animal and focused on the remaining four kett.

The fast and agile ones were swiftly moving from cover to cover, avoiding rifle fire as they dived from cover to cover whilst the heavy trooper was firing at them with reckless abandon, intent on keeping them down and behind cover so that the others could get a shot off on them.

Only for his upper torso to explode violently as a small explosion happened only feet from him, SAM informing them that Outcast had most likely used an airburst arrow to take care of the hostile, much to their thanks as they gave the small marker of his tag a thumbs up, receiving two green beeps from their communicators as acknowledgment.

'_It seems as if that bow really did come in handy after all.' _Ryder thought to himself, taking time to aim at one of the kett as they moved back and forth between cover, much to Ryder's chagrin as he had to make a guess where it'd be next.

Eventually the man grew tired of it, opting to throw a frag grenade in its general direction and watching as it dived away, landing right in his line of fire, which the man took full advantage of.

After firing enough rounds into it that its blood type was probably replaced entirely, Ryder took one look at Jaal, seeing the man detonating an explosive barrel next to the other kett, sending it to the ground as the man finished it off with a headshot.

With only one kett ground troop remaining, Jaal and Ryder raise both of their weapons at it, seeing that it had returned their actions with haste, only for it stand upright abruptly, dropping its weapon to the ground as it stood in place.

Right when Ryder was about to say something, Outcast uncloaked right behind it, his knife deep into the back of its head as he pulls it out, dropping the body to the ground as he casually stepped over it.

"I advise that we leave the prisoners alone for now; we've got more drop ships inbound and having a bunch of unarmed POW's running around will complicate things fast." He told them, going back to the storage crate that had his arrow lodged within it, grabbing the shaft and forcefully pulling out as he puts it back into the auto-loader on his bow.

"We can give them weapons from fallen kett, that way they can help us." Jaal told him, receiving a headshake from the man, explaining to him that they most likely took their shields away from them when they were captured, leaving them vulnerable to gunfire.

They accepted the reasoning, knowing that the man had a point and that he was thinking logically about having unarmed and unshielded people in a warzone.

Jaal, as much as he didn't like to admit, knew that the prisoners needed to stay in their containment pods for a bit longer; knowing that they'd be more of a hindrance than a benefit to the three of them at this point.

Seems as if they're going to have to wait a little bit longer.

But on the flip side both him and Ryder gained a little bit of respect for him as well, knowing his attitude towards non-humans and how he views them, he had advised them to keep them locked up for their safety.

With their rifles in hand, the three of them took cover an waited patiently for the kett reinforcements to arrive, no doubt trying to keep them from escaping with the captured angara and, if they even knew about it, the data that they have.

* * *

The last angara was finally released, regrouping on the center platform with everyone else as the three of them waited for their target to finish speaking with the others before turning back to them.

"Just in time! I would've given us another day or two at most before the kett did who knows what to us; no thanks to Eraana's jabs towards their personal lives." He tells them, with Eraana retorting that if they couldn't take a few mean words, then that was their fault.

Rolling his eyes at the woman's remark, Eiilj looked back at the trio, asking them how'd they find him their and what were their intentions.

Ryder stepped up to answer the man's questions.

"Your nephew, Skeot, asked us to rescue you."

Eiilj nodded his head, understanding why they were sent there to rescue them, commenting that he was a good person but they needed to get the information that they had gathered back to a woman named Buxil so that she can get started on analyzing the data.

"Interesting; it seems as if we need to rely on our saviors for more than a rescue. Can you deliver this drive to Techiix? If we work together, no time will be wasted."

Ryder nodded his head at the request, accepting the data drive from the man as he asked what was on it, with the man informing him about that it housed kett codes that would, or should, allow them to bypass the shield around their main base.

After leaving, Jaal walked next to Ryder as they were headed back to the nomad, looking over at the man as he began speaking with him.

"This… this is big: liberating key resistance agents and recovering highly important and stealing vital kett information. This is huge for our cause. Even now, after all the theories and suspicions about you have been laid to rest and Evfra must be convinced of your cause." He told him, climbing into the vehicle as Ryder went to the driver's seat and Outcast being comfortable in the back.

"What about the data drive?"

"You can take it to Techiix now or speak with Evfra and update him on the situation. The choice is yours."

Ryder hummed in thought, looking at his omni-tool and selecting a destination, sending the coordinates to the navigation system and following the beacon that it had provided, telling Jaal that he'll talk to Evfra later and get the data drive to Techiix so that they can deal with the kett as soon as they could.

Jaal could only smile and nod at the man's decision, agreeing with him that Evfra could wait.

Now it was time for them to get that data to Buxil.

* * *

"I understand that you don't like talking about your past, Outcast, but what I don't understand is why you're still somewhat hostile towards nonhumans." Ryder asked the man, the nomad bouncing around and driving over dunes of snow and ice as the man in question looked back at him.

"That's a long story kid; short version is that I seen early on just how fragile and weak humanity really is compared to alien life, how much more advanced they are than us, and how much they don't care about us in general. I used to be hopeful about the subject of other life in the universe, when I was a kid, then I got in a car wreck and was placed in this suit. Not only that, but when we did encounter aliens, they wasted no time in killing us on sight." He explained, looking out the window as he watched the landscape pass by.

"Damn… do you still feel like that? Towards aliens, _our aliens_? I mean, if you used to-"

"Used to, Ryder… used to."

Ryder nodded grimly to himself, understanding what the man was saying as silence reigned over through the vehicle, the only sounds audible being those from outside and the engine powering the nomad.

After delivering the data to Buxil at Techiix, Ryder told his companions to come back aboard the Tempest, not wanting the two of them to stay out in the cold (even though both of them don't mind) while he speaks with Evfra, learning more information about the location of the angaran Moshae from the man so that they can finish the mission to strengthen relations between both factions.

Outcast was indifferent about the situation while Jaal went up with Ryder to talk to the man; most likely as an intermediary of some sort.

"Outcast!" The man hears to his right, turning his head to look at the slightly taller kid who was waving at him to come over and sit with him.

Shrugging his shoulders, Outcast obliged him and took the seat across from the kid; leaning back into the seat as Benjamin finished his lunch.

"What's it like down there? I heard it was cold."

"Not even the half of it, kid; well below negative forty in some places, and thirty in others. What are you eating there? Doesn't seem like anything I'm familiar with." He asked, pointing at the plate that Benjamin had finished as he was putting it in the sink.

"I don't even know what it was, something called… Earlixen; Kallo told me it was good and that our species can eat the same foods." He explained, shrugging his shoulders as he grabbed a glass for himself and his friend to drink out of, pouring water into both of them as he sets one down in front of the man.

"Benjamin…"

"Come on Outcast, please? You need to drink something, not just sit around and brood all day."

It took a few seconds for him to realize what he had said, looking sheepishly at the blank look that the man was probably giving him under the helmet, remembering the man's rather peculiar dietary and nutritional situation that made it to where it was completely optional for him to consume anything.

Sighing to himself, Outcast lifted the glass and inspected it for a brief moment, using his other hand to remove the helmet from his head so that he can swallow the liquid.

If nothing else, then the oxygen and hydrogen would give the suit some extra energy.

Benjamin felt accomplished that he had finally took his first look at the man's face, seeing how pale and _different_ it seemed, compared to everyone else. That and the glowing eyes that seemed as if they were cybernetic entirely had caught his attention, knowing that they were different than any other human that he's ever met.

When he realized that he was staring, he let out a small apology, with the man waving him off and explaining that he doesn't mind the him being curious about his looks.

Considering that he never takes the helmet off, it would only come naturally that he'd want to get as much detail memorized.

Standing up and putting his helmet on, Outcast pats him on the back, telling him to not get in too much trouble while he's gone.

"Be safe out there."

"No promises kid; take care."

Now, with him headed back to the surface with Ryder and Jaal, Outcast could only wonder what they'd find inside the kett facility.

'_Probably something of importance; hell, it could be nothing at all. Who knows at this point? No one that's been in there has ever come out, so it could be a form of labor or death camp, like those of Nazi Germany.'_ He thought to himself, walking through the doors and meeting up with Ryder and Jaal, patiently waiting for them to finish readying up so that they could head back out.

Maybe they can get finished with this mission within the next couple of hours?

* * *

"What the hell do you mean by _'I told them about our AI?'_ That was an advantage that we had over them." Outcast questioned, looking sideways at Ryder as they were being flown to the site.

After Ryder and Jaal was finished with conversing with the other angara in the shuttle, Ryder had told him about his conversation with Evfra and that he had told them an Initiative secret.

Ryder sighed and shook his head, looking at the man as he looked back silently, waiting for an explanation as to why he did what he did.

"I understand that we threw away one of our biggest cards here, Outcast; but I did it because if the Andromeda initiative is to survive and thrive out here, then we need allies who can trust us and we can trust in return. They needed the processing power of our AI to give them that push that they needed in order to crack the code that would allow us through the kett barrier. I'm sorry if this comes back to bite us in the ass later, but we need to show these people that we can be trustworthy, honest, and upfront with them when it comes to situations like this." He explained, frowning a little bit as the man only shrugged in response to his reasoning, telling him that he understood perfectly why he did what he did but told him to be careful about giving sensitive information to unknowns.

Nodding his head, they all waited patiently for the transport to land, the three of them checking their weapons to see if they were combat ready as they would most likely be going into a hot zone.

Not knowing what they'd encounter, the group's AI had gathered all relevant information from the Tempest's databases about the different types of ground troops that they have encountered, displaying the information onto Ryder's omni-tool and Outcasts visor, the two of them memorizing as much of the information as they could before the transport landed, the sounds of the engines dying off as the pilot looked back at the trio.

"This is as far as we can get before the anti-air batteries knock us out of the sky; that and the storm is getting worse by the minute." They were warned, everyone inside the shuttle making last minute checks on their gear as Ryder told them that once they were past the shield that they'd take point, while they look for Moshae Sjefa.

With that being said, the pilot told them to radio him once they were ready for extraction, dropping the group off before leaving the area.

"Do we even know what kind of force we should expect?"

"Not a clue."

Ryder sighed at the answer, grabbing his rifle and shouldering it, telling everyone to be careful about any ambush as they come up to the barrier blocking them from entering the facility.

"There are little signs of patrols out here, actually; the kett won't be expecting us to enter this place at all, meaning that they aren't expecting the shield to fall and giving us the advantage. There should be a system node somewhere nearby that we need to hack to gain entrance." Skaelv told them, looking through the scope of her rifle for any signs of kett.

Upon finishing the sentence, SECOND began speaking through the comms of the squad, telling them where the nearest node is.

[Kett relay node located; interface with device immediately.] It told them, startling Jaal and Ryder both as they flinch slightly at the sudden noise of the AI.

"Jesus… that's still unsettling to hear; completely unlike SAM and how smooth he sounds, compared to sounding like a robot."

Outcast shrugged at the comment, telling him that he'll get used to it eventually and that he's been with it for over twenty years.

Upon Ryder imputing the angaran codes into the node, telling SAM to not embarrass him in front of the others as he and SECOND worked together to open a small opening into the barrier, allowing the group to pass through with no effort before closing it behind them.

Just as they set foot through, the group was ambushed by two of the wraiths, the animals uncloaking as they began attacking the invaders, only to stop as one was shot to death and the other had the entirety of its head sunk into its barrel by Outcast who simply kicked it like he was breaching a door, the power behind the action killing to creature immediately.

"SAM, SECOND, I want to know everything about this place by the time we're done here; I don't want to leave a single stone unturned." Ryder told the AIs, receiving confirmations from both of them as they climbed their way through a side entrance that led through an exhaust vent.

When they made their way through the vent, they came into an open area with a few kett and more wraiths patrolling the area, but from the looks of how they were moving, they almost seemed bored, like they had no idea why they were there in the first place.

That was until the group fired upon the unaware kett, killing two immediately as the rest dived for cover to avoid sharing the fate of their comrades.

Taking the opportunity that was presented to him, Outcast motioned for Ryder to give him covering fired as he cloaked from sight, turning invisible from the group (which caught the other angara off guard as they had no idea he was capable of doing so) Ryder took his sniper rifle out and laid prone as the others were dropping onto ground floor.

Jaal knew that the armored human was using his cloak to not only work for him as a means to not be discovered during the fight, but as a means of psychological warfare; picking off anyone that was either far from a group or bold enough to try and flank them with lethal and extreme results.

He is interrupted from his thoughts as a kett body landed on top of the crate that he was using as cover, its neck, flesh, and bone-like carapace either twisted, broke or shattered with the head facing in a complete one-eighty, causing the man to look up and see the faint shimmer of the man moving swiftly and cautiously through the area before disappearing from sight once more.

"I'd hate to face this alien in one on one combat." Owwin told him, looking slightly taken back by the grotesque sight of the recently dead kett.

"Outcast is an exemplary warrior with skills and assets that would make him a very powerful ally or a feared enemy. I understand that this is new for you, young Owwin, but this is the harsh realities of war; expect to see gruesome displays of warfare just as this. Keep your head down, mind cleared, and weapon ready; your brothers will be proud to know that you helped us on this day." He told the younger angara, seeing the man nod his head as he fired back at the few remaining kett.

Jaal understood his hesitation; he himself felt that way once before, after all.

"How many is-" Skaelv is cut off, hearing the scream of a kett as it plummeted head first onto the hard metal floor from the top walk way, the screams dying almost immediately as Outcast uncloaked and jumped down and crushed his head as it tried to get back up.

Not bothering to stop and give the corpse a second glance, the man casually steps in front of Ryder, his weapon in low ready as spoke to the man.

"Situation resolved, all hostiles KIA. We've got a new player on the field," he tells them, motioning his head towards the dead body that he had crushed, "these guys can cloak while inside of a form of smokescreen that they deploy. Other than that, they seem to have a form of shield that is resistant to small arms fire, but once that goes down, they're as good dead. What's the sit-rep?"

Commander Heckt, the angaran group leader, took this as a chance to gather everyone together.

"We no longer have the element of surprise; you have the best chance of finding the Moshae while we'll attack them head-on and provide a distraction." He told them, looking at Ryder as the man seemed confused at the plan that he had come up with.

"That's not a plan of attack at all, more like suicide."

"We're ready for everything, now; kick in their front door." He tells them, acknowledging Ryder's request to stay in radio contact as the three of them go through the entrance that Skaelv opened, leaving him, Jaal, and Outcast to their own devices.

He hopes that they don't get themselves killed while they act as distraction.

With that in mind, Ryder motions for the group to follow him as they head deeper into the base.

If only they knew what horrors awaited them further within.

* * *

"We have to rescue them." Jaal looked to Ryder as the congregation below is evacuating as the distraction that Heckt and the others set off as Ryder quickly decided what needed be done.

"We'll help your people Jaal, Right Outcast?"

"It wasn't a part of the mission or the plans, but shit changes all the time. Sure, but the Moshae is our number one priority; if her safety is compromised, then I will abandon the rescue op. Her survival is critical." He told the man, receiving a nod of understanding form him as Jaal looked at the two of them.

"I understand clearly, Outcast. Thank you both for allowing this to happen and helping my people."

"Yeah, yeah let's get a move on or else we won't be able to save _anyone_." The man responded, walking by Jaal as Ryder nudged his head towards the door that Outcast was going through, silently telling him to follow as nodded his head and looked back at the scene below, before following his two squad-mates.

"Did you really have to do that to that guy?"

Ryder ducked back into cover as several rounds impacted the wall that he was using as cover, the four massive kett soldiers using their heavy weapons to keep the three of them in cover as more kett filed into the room.

"Shouldn't have looked at me like that." Outcast responded, shrugging his shoulders as he pulled his bow out and loaded an airburst arrow, seemingly not bothered in the slightest at what was currently happening at the moment.

Ryder took one look at the kett that was very much dead, his arm broken with the bone exposed and then proceeded to be used as a means to pin the kett soldier to the glass with it sticking through his head, and shook his head at the nonchalant reply.

"Think that fancy suit of yours can handle their weapons long enough for you to deal with them while Jaal and I take out the ones in the back?" He asked the man, receiving a nod in return as the suit visibly changed how it looked and felt, the man walking out of cover and directly into the line of fire as he let the drawstring go, sending the arrow downrange as he put his bow back on his back and drew a knife, charging the kett who were still alive.

Jaal and Ryder nodded as they used their jump jets to climb to the upper level, seeing as how they're friend was currently busy with the kett on the bottom floor to be worried about the ones currently shooting him from above.

With their weapons drawn, the two of them moves systematically from cover to cover, contacting each other, Commander Heckt's team, and SAM over the radio to keep up with mission details as Ryder and Jaal takes out the wraiths that were sent out to deal with them.

"How's things going for you down there?"

"Stupid fuckers don't realize that they can't hurt me when my armor mode is on."

"Is that bad?"

"No, it just gets aggravating after a short period of time."

Ryder snorted at that, peeking over the ledge to see that the man was crouching behind a crate before grabbing said crate and throwing it with all of his might into the big kett, crushing it between a wall as he ran past the corpse while Jaal finished the last kett off.

"We have to keep going or else we'll lose the Moshae and all these people." He told him, leaning over the edge and staring as Outcast had grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up, his head moving around as he scanned the environment.

"There," he told them, pointing at another set of vents similar to the ones that they had busted through when they entered the facility, "SECOND and SAM are getting a layout of the facility as we speak, and from preliminary data that they have gathered, cutting through here should save us some time."

"Your AI seems to be a little more sophisticated than SAM; why's that?" Ryder asked, his head tilted in curiosity as the man in question shrugged.

"SECOND was made to be a part of this suit from the get go; the people who made the suit made sure that they had put as much effort, if not more into creating him as they did the suit. That and SECOND was able to cure a ceph created bio-weapon in only a few days after obtaining a single live specimen of the disease. Besides, he isn't limited to a ship or a space station and is able to gather data while we're on field." He explained, breaking through the vents with relative ease as he physically ripped them off their supports, creating a pathway for the group to follow.

Ryder couldn't help but gawk at the sight that lied above them as they entered the room: there seemed to be hundreds, if not thousands of pods that housed angara within them lining the walls of the entire building, knowing that the person that they're after is inside one of them.

"Fuck that's a lot of them."

"What can you pull from this terminal, SAM, SECOND?" Ryder quickly asked, interfacing with a nearby kett terminal in hopes that they'll find the Moshae sooner than what was implied, due to the amount of time they have and the number of pods to search through being vastly different.

[The Chosen are logged by genetic information_._]

"Hurry, please."

[I apologize for any delays, Jaal; SECOND and I are currently working at top velocity with an unknown and alien language, with alien technology, and finally checking against angaran databases. The Moshae was here, but her pod was pulled only moments ago_._] SAM explained, getting through the kett databases as fast as he could with the help of an additional AI, but was unable to find the exact location that they had pulled her to.

"And where'd that be exactly?"

[Pods travel from here to rooms that encircle this core, as for her exact whereabouts; I am unsure.]

The comms flared to life as Skaelv's voice came through, causing Ryder to give his attention to it as the group traversed through dark corridors; Jaal and Ryder activating their lights so that they can see while Outcast activated nanovision.

"_Reinforcements are arriving now, Pathfinder; doubling back to rendezvous now._"

"We have a lead on your Moshae; found it in one of the terminals in the big pod rooms. And from what we've gathered thus far, she seems to be alive."

"_Star's strength! That's good news to hear, especially during these trying times._"

Ryder told her that he'd keep in touch if they learned anything else about her whereabouts, or anything new that arises.

When walking through the next set of doors, the group new that it was another decontamination room, but Outcast told Ryder and Jaal to take cover as there was activity in the next room.

Especially since the facility's leader was in the room as well.

"SAM, can you do anything about this yet?" Ryder asked hurriedly, not wanting or liking the idea of getting caught in a kill box that would get him and Jaal killed and Outcast probably captured.

_Probably_ meaning; he does have the highest possibility and chance of surviving any kind of fight.

[Working on it.]

The group took this time to inspect what was happening inside, seeing a group of kett performing a form of ritual as one of their own levitates off the ground and stops in front of a pod as it opens, leaving an angaran in the air as the kett revealed two syringes and jammed them both into the man, injecting its contents into his body as his body began violently shaking and mutating, changing his body as he hit the ground in silent agony, still twitching as the effects of the syringe are coursing through his body.

The end result shocked all of them.

The angaran had turned into the enemy that they were all fighting: a kett.

Seeing this had shocked Jaal to his core and once the doors opened after the decontamination was completed, he had opened fire on all of them, screaming as he did so.

"Wait! Don't kill the angaran! We can still save him!" He pleaded to the others, seeing the recently turned kett firing back at them with the other kett following suit, driving the group into cover.

"Jaal he's shooting-"

"Not anymore he's not." Outcast told them, his bow collapsing back into its compact state as Ryder looked up and seen that the recently turned kett was currently pinned to the wall by an arrow through his leg, ultimately putting him out of the fight.

"Monsters! Villains! Time for you to all die for what you have done!" Jaal screamed, not bothering to go into cover as he and Outcast had both begun firing into anything that was currently moving, the two of them killing the kett with ruthless efficiency as Ryder followed suit.

It had turned into a bloodbath for them within seconds.

"Jaal, I'm sorry but there isn't anything we can do." Ryder tried explaining to the man, getting pushed away as he looked over the injured kett frantically, drawing a sigh form him as Outcast could only shake his head.

"There has to be something! We can't just leave him-"

Jaal is interrupted when Outcast had pulled his knife out and held it to the kett's throat, getting ready to slit it as Jaal had immediately grabbed his hand, causing him to look up.

"I'm sorry Jaal, but he isn't angaran anymore: the serum used can't be reversed and it completely rewrote everything about the angaran who was here before. Everything from memories, feelings, thoughts, and any other personal liberties were erased when this happened." He told him, looking back to the kett and getting ready to continue with his motions until he was stopped once more.

"Please… if anyone is going to do this, let it be a fellow angaran… he deserves that much, at least." Jaal begged him, his voice low almost to the point of him crying as Outcast didn't visibly react to his words, but slowly pulled the knife away and handed it to him, before walking off.

"Let's go Ryder; this is something personal that we don't need to be here for." He told the man, walking by him as he followed closely behind, leaving Jaal to put the kett out of its misery.

* * *

Outcast was _pissed_: seeing that the kett were using something to transform the angara into them and using them to fight their own people made something within the man to snap, his anger fueling his desire to kill as many of them as he can while they watched as the same event happen to the Moshae.

"SECOND… find me something that can overcharge me."

[_Affirmative; standby… sufficient power source discovered within a panel at the end of the decontamination room._]

Without saying anything, Outcast pushed Ryder and Jaal to the side, interrupting one's attempts at bashing through the window and the other by having SAM hack the controls of the decontamination cycle.

Ripping the panel off the wall was simple enough for the man, and once that was accomplished he had found a glowing energy core that was probably acting as a form of power source for the barriers that protect the windows from being breached.

Too bad that it was going to be used for the complete opposite.

The sudden flash of light behind the two of them caught their eye, seeing that Outcast had dropped a device onto the ground, the entirety of his suit glowing with energy that caused the two of them to flinch at first from their eyes being adjusted to the dark.

Then the man casually walked in between them and reared his fist back and punched the glass, causing deep and viscous cracks to appear throughout the entire window, catching the two of them off guard as he hit it again, sending fragments of glass everywhere.

Without wasting time, the kett that was getting ready to turn the Moshae into one them had grabbed her, fleeing deeper within the facility as Outcast had ran after them, grabbing a nearby kett and literally _crushing_ its head with a single hand and killing the other when he threw the body into it.

"What the fuck are you two waiting for? MOVE IT!" He tells them, running into the elevator as the other two followed quickly behind.

"Was that-"

"_That_ was overcharge; it doesn't last long if the energy source is small." He told him, motioning towards the suit as it had lost it's effect while the elevator climbed upwards towards the docking area of the facility.

* * *

"You cannot take it!" The three of them hears from behind, turning to see the Cardinal standing behind them, holding her side ad she was hunched over.

"It is meant for the Archon himself!"

As she was preparing an attack, Outcast uncloaked beside her, his rifle barrel gently prodding the side of her head, causing her to lower her arm.

"She's coming with us, regardless of what your Archon thinks."

"Wait," the Moshae told him, looking at the Cardinal as she held onto both Ryder and Jaal for support, "I want to know why the Archon-"

The Cardinal growled at them, interrupting the Moshae as she demanded to know who they were to deny such a high and prestigious gift.

Ryder retorted with the fact that they turned their own kind against them, to which the Cardinal told him about how they were chosen to join them to become great and beyond their ability to understand.

"Like them, I was once wretched and the exalted DNA of our great Archon intwines with mine! I stand on the shoulders of his greatness. As they now do, and as one day, you all will."

"What the fuck are you? His sex toy or some shit? Listen bitch, you don't get to decide what's great; you hear me? Your _greatness_ is nothing but a bunch of false propaganda to hide the insecurities of your overlord because he's probably on the lower end of the totem pole in this hierarchical structure that you all seem to follow. Try fighting ceph who are capable of wiping entire worlds in days, who are capable of travelling million of lightyears in an instant, who are capable of destroying everything you've got with little effort. Afterwards, then maybe you can call yourself great."

"You will all be exalted."

Having heard enough from the woman, Ryder asks SAM if there was a way to destroy the facility, to which SAM responded with that he could access the EM field to destroy everything, at the cost of killing all of the angara.

"You promised you would get our people out!" Jaal exclaimed, his face setting in panic as he looked at Ryder with worry.

"This facility needs to be destroyed, regardless if we save the angara or not." Outcast told him, his eyes focusing on the Cardinal as she looked between the three of them frantically.

"Wait! Leave my sacred temple intact and I will personally open all the pods and release the Chosen. Take them; just leave this holy place standing." She pleaded, looking Ryder deep in the eyes as she requested him to do this.

The Moshae demanded different, telling him that the facility needed to be destroyed, even if it killed her in the process, which Jaal told her that they could destroy it later.

After arguing with each other, Ryder stops the two of them from continuing on, looking at the Cardinal and ordering her to release the pods, much to the woman's relief.

"Jaal, have the Resistance free as many of them before the kett arrive."

"I will… and thank you."

When she had finished speaking and turned around to walk away, Outcast had simply walked behind her and grabbed the back of her head and the front of her jaw, violently snapping her neck and twisting her head a full one-eighty, leaving the last image that she will ever see being the look of the blood red visor and dark grey color of his helmet.

"I was prepared to say that she deserved much worse, but I'm glad that you went with a more hands-on approach." The Moshae told him, receiving a dark laugh from the man as he readied his rifle.

The man had much more in mind for this place than what any of them had suspected.

Much more.

* * *

**That does it for this chapter. Not much else to say, other than I'm sorry for not getting this out sooner.**

**So, it seems as if the day was saved after all: the Moshae was rescued, the Cardinal was killed, the team seen how Outcast operates, and the angaran prisoners were saved as well.**

**"But the facility!" You may be asking. Trust me: next chapter, that will be taken care of. Permanently.**

**As always, tell me what you all think about this chapter, how I could improve it, what more I could add to later chapters, and anything else that you see fit.**

**I hope you all stay safe during these times and that you and your loved ones make it through this in one piece.**

**PS: For chapters that features more than one mission needing to be accomplished so that that the over lining mission (such as rescuing the guy's uncle to get information, taking it back to the Tempest, getting more information, going on a scouting run, then assaulting the kett base to rescue the Moshae) is completed, should I keep it as one big chapter, or break it up into two?**


End file.
